EU & UK: Malting barley supply & demand balance fairly stable
The supply & demand balance of malting barley is fairly stable in the western EU + UK, H. M. Gauger GmbH said in their October report.
Agreste has reduced its crop estimate of French spring barley to 2.97 mln tonnes (to which must be added 0.8 mln tonnes of fall-seeded spring varieties). Apart from small yields, its major handicap is the high protein contents. The French export surplus looks like 1.3 mln tonnes of spring and 1.8 mln tonnes of winter malting barley (other EU demand of 6-row winter barley is 1.1 mln tonnes.
The northern EU crops are large and of good quality, proteins in Denmark and Sweden are on the low, but mostly acceptable at minimum 9.5%. Danish priced and unpriced export commitments are estimated at 700,000 tonnes.
UK’s barley with low moisture, good grain size, and proteins around 10% in England is very much wanted by continental maltsters. On paper there is a surplus of 1 mln tonnes in the core EU + UK, but only for a 12 months’ supply, the analysts said.
The Iberian countries are expected to import 250-300,000 tonnes, the demand in the eastern, south-eastern and southern EU countries will also amount to a few hundred thousand tonnes. Poland and the Czech Republic report reasonably good crops.
Markets are inactive, because most of the barley and malt business of crop 2022 has been done very early in the campaign. Export business is most disappointing, especially China has lifted only 280,000 tonnes against old contracts. Total EU barley exports in July 1 - September 25 were 2.044 vs. 3.122 mln tonnes a year ago.
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