EU & UK: Heavy rains interrupt harvest in key malting barley regions

The biggest concern in Europe is the persistent and heavy rains in key malting barley regions interrupting harvest at a critical time, RMI Analytics said in their latest report.

Yields in the UK are slightly better but still at the longer term average. Spain�s crop is poor but the production estimate is improved with harvest complete. The overall EU and UK result at 54.3 mln tonnes is 4.5 mln tonnes lower than crop 2022.

While Ukraine�s crop is unchanged, the Russian crop is expanding due to better yields.

Europe�s winter barley harvest is mostly complete, which is providing much needed stability to the market, especially as spring barley harvest limps forward in many regions.

The risk of increasing quality issues grows as the weather remains uncooperative and concerns include such major issues as weathering, mould, and in extreme cases pre-germination. The final quality result for crop 2023 will be determined and confirmed over the next 2-3 weeks, the analysts said.

Barley prices in Europe are mostly slightly down as harvest wraps up in France, and is advancing in the UK and Denmark/Sweden after wet weather caused significant delays. This week there is some positive news on quality being attained in Denmark which is encouraging, with exporters showing a willingness to sell barley for October-December 2023.

The price spreads between 2 row spring and 6 row winter, and 2 row spring and feed barley remain extremely wide despite the current drop in prices, aided in fact by feed barley prices slipping lower this period.

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