Argentina: Farmers remain cautious about selling barley

The Argentina Government removal of USD currency restrictions and the reduced export tax until the end of June’25 are aimed at stimulating export trade. Farmers remain cautious about selling barley as interest rates in peso terms are 32% annually, RMI Analytics said in their latest report earlier in April.

Argentinean barley prices are slightly lower, as feed barley demand from Saudi Arabia has completely disappeared, rumoured to have shifted to Black Sea new crop shipments. For Argentina, demand from China remains present but buying ideas are well below current selling ideas, leaving a rather large bid offer spread. Feed barley prices had previously increased sharply when the trade struggled to buy sufficient coverage for export volumes, but now a reasonable malting barley premium has been reestablished as feed barley prices retreated.

Demand from India for feed/FAQ and malting barley has been present, and there is still further malting business expected to be traded into Brazil. The export level of 3.2 mln tonnes remains achievable, the analysts believe.