EU: Malt exports lag far behind last years numbers
Licence bookings by the end of February are 1.208 million tonnes, 222,000 tonnes behind the pace of 2005/06. If the rhythm of export shipments remains unchanged till the end of the crop year, the final figure may be 1.8 million tonnes versus 2.18 million tonnes a year earlier.
The reasons are known: a lower malt production in the EU, smaller purchases of many brewers, some small losses to competitor countries. Several 10,000 tonnes sales to Romania and Bulgaria will move from the column export to third countries to domestic trade.