EU & UK: Malting barley trade at standstill at the moment

Malting barley trade has come to a standstill; the French, English, Scandinavian FOB prices have come down sharply, the northern crops provide for an obvious surplus in the EU – UK, H. M. Gauger GmbH said in their latest report earlier in September.

But water levels on European rivers are at a record low, during a few days Rhine barges could load only 20% of their normal quantities. It increased automatically the CIF prices of French grains, also Danish and Swedish grains to inland destinations on the continent.

Ukrainian Danube transports, coal shipments to power plants, overburdened rail and truck transport will affect the transport sector in the foreseeable future, the analysts said.

Rumours are that a few brewers, in the EU and abroad, are short of barley and malt capacity; others are short of barley against LTA malt contracts. Most maltsters, however, have covered their barleys, at the time when they sold malt. The EU malting industry is virtually sold out. It leaves an open barley demand of hardly more than 10-20% of crop 2022.

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