World: Barley prices slightly lower in early 2025

From a price perspective, 2025 is starting with a drifting lower of barley prices, for all regions, with malting prices under a bit more pressure than feed barley prices which are steadier (even up a little in Argentina), RMI Analytics said in their first report in 2025.

In terms of maintaining planted area in 2025, it will be important to follow malting barley premiums which are quite varied globally - from USD25/tonne in Australia to over USD50 in Argentina. The French USD60/tonne premium should help maintain spring barley area, the analysts said.

Australia continues to firmly hold the most competitive global origin for malting barley, and also on a delivered basis for feed barley to China. This explains the price movement from other origins (Chart left), where the decline in prices is gradually closing the gap to Australian prices. The RMI Predictive Barley Price Model forecasts a continuation of this narrowing trend in the months ahead.