World: Barley crop forecast reduced by 0.7 mln tonnes to 143.6 mln

Harvest of the northern hemisphere barley crop is limping along - impacted by persistent rains in Europe and until this week extreme heat in North America and the Black Sea, RMI Analytics said in its latest report earlier in August.

For the range of weather extremes experienced, crop’24 is one of the most variable growing seasons in years. As harvest results trickle in, yield impacts are being confirmed and in response, the experts’ global barley production estimate is reduced -0.7 mln tonnes to 143.6 mln.

Noted changes are: -0.2 mln tonnes for the EU27+UK; -0.2 mln for Canada; -0.3 for Russia; Rest of World -0.3 mln tonnes; and +0.3 mln tonnes for Australia.

More rain in Europe is stalling harvest efforts, and Canada’s harvest is just beginning.
Ukraine’s barley production, at 5.2 mln tonnes, has more or less delivered expected yields. Earlier seeding appears to have helped avoid damage from the hot temperatures. By comparison, reports are Ukrainian maize yields have been reduced sharply by the recent heatwave.

The steady decline in world barley production, leads to only a 1.0 mln tonnes increase from crop’23. This remains less worrisome because of the continued weak demand situation. Still, the remaining harvest outcome in the northern hemisphere is critical as the overall pool of available barley has steadily declined.