Australia: Barley crop 2024 reported at 11.9 mln tonnes

After a struggling crop season, barley crop’24 has drawn to a conclusion with a varied crop amounting to 11.9 mln tonnes, unchanged from the estimate in RMI Analytics’ late December report, the analysts said earlier in January.

Over the last 30 days, dry weather conditions allowed the last portion of harvest to conclude in South Australia and western Victoria, areas where weather impacted quality and yields but in the end Victoria performed better than expected. The outcome in Western Australia was better than expected, with the 3rd largest barley crop ever and New South Wales had a very good crop.

For crop’25, a return to average yields would raise production by 0.6 mln tonnes to 12.5 mln, the analysts believe. Strong exports to China and other destinations would continue with this slightly larger crop, but ending stocks are steady as exports increase a bit.

The pace of Australian barley exports to Mexico continue to slow, relative to 2023, putting more reliance on Chinese demand.