Australia: Demand from China for malting barley is to return to normal levels

Barley producers may receive significantly higher prices for their next crop, as worldwide demand increases and supplies from other countries fall, ABC Rural News posted on July 28. Inclement weather conditions in the northern hemisphere have seen crop estimates scaled back in both Europe and Canada.

And Nigel Officer from ABB Grain says demand from China for malting barley is expected to return to normal levels after a few years of using cheaper grain in beer production. "We would expect that China will once again import something in the order of about 2 million tonnes, maybe just a little bit over 2 million tonnes of malting barley next year," he said. "And from Australia we would expect to be supplying somewhere around about 1.5 to 1.7 million tonnes of that."

ABB Grain has again lifted pool returns to growers by a further A$5 a tonne for malting barley to between A$220 and A$230.

Meanwhile, WA's Grain Licensing Authority has approved another three special export licences. The approvals include 110,000 tonnes of feed barley to the Middle East and 60,000 tonnes of malting barley to China.