Finland: 2006 barley and malting barley forecast. Barley varieties 2006

Expected area seeded with barley in 2006 is to remain almost unchanged at about 590,000 ha, H. Abildstrøm & Co ApS reported on December 30 2005. In 2005 barley area was of 594,000 ha of which 159,300 ha with malting barley. For comparison in 2004 barley area was 531,800 ha of which 136,200 ha with malting barley.

In 2005 Finland harvested 2,102,900 tonnes of barley of which 607,200 tonnes of malting barley of which acceptable/accessible for malt production 300,000 tonnes; Domestic demand malting barley 200,000 tonnes; Theoretical exportable surplus: 100,000 tonnes.

However:
1) Not all Finnish surplus can be exported, as several foreign buyers do not accept
the main variety SAANA,
2) others do not want SCARLETT as having enough of this variety themselves,
3) a lot of malting barley is situated closer to intervention silos than ports and/or
railway junctions causing Finnish malting barley to follow the feed into intervention.

H. Abildstrøm & Co ApS’s estimate for Finnish exports: would hardly exceed 30.000 tonnes.

Prognosis barley varieties to be sown in Finland Spring 2006:

SCARLETT 35%
SAANA (mainly feed) 25%
PRESTIGE 10%
BARKE 10%
ANNABEL 7%
BRAEMAR 3%
MAREN 2%
OTHERS 8%

OTHERS can be Carafe, Sebastian, Power, Inari.

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