Argentina: Barley crop 2025 development supported by favourable weather

The combination of persistent rainfall, with cooler temperatures is supporting barley crop’25 development as harvest approaches. Without the cooler conditions the presence of disease may have become a more serious problem, RMI Analytics reported earlier this month.

‘Rain makes Grain’ and this is the case in Argentina, and raises RMI’s crop’25 forecast for barley by 0.3 mln to 5.4 mln tonnes. With the larger crop the industry observers’ export forecast has increased slightly to 3.5 mln tonnes, which seems like a big number under the current weak demand profile in malting barley. Still, the demand for feed barley remains strong, with over 800 thousand tonnes reportedly sold to the Middle East (Saudi) for January execution. Like last year, this strong feed demand could facilitate an export level of 3.5 mln tonnes, RMI Analytics said.

There are small areas of frost severely damaging yields but the overall impact is relatively minor, and the good yield prospects massively out-weigh these problems.