Australia: Malting barley crop seen as sufficient to meet current demand scenario

The last portion of Australia’s east-coast harvest has endured persistent rain and this is raising concerns about the barley selectability for the last portion of harvest. Thankfully, the very good early harvest in northern New South Wales and Western Australia results improving as harvest concluded, leaves sufficient malting barley to meet the current demand scenario, RMI Analytics said in their latest report.

The experts’ estimate of Australia’s barley crop is up 0.5 mln to 11.9 mln tonnes, and the bigger crop offsets earlier weather impacts in Victoria and South Australia.

Despite the east-coast struggles to complete harvest under wet conditions, prices for both malting and feed barley are sharply lower. Recent global tenders for malting barley have been awarded to Australia, and as evidence to the improved available, have been captured by Western Australia. For the eastern malting barley demand, after the earlier major frost event and late season rain reduced selection rates, good quality New South Wales malting barley will move southward to a greater extent than normal.