Eyre Peninsula barley growers are being offered a range of new malting barley contract choices by AusBulk grain marketing, Australian Ezigrain reported. AusBulk grain marketing division executive manager, Phil Pyle said the company's acquisition of the Adelaide Malting Company and Joe White Maltings, which together formed AusMalt, had given the company a tremendous appetite for barley. "We're going to be out there buying tens of thousand tonnes of barley this season to keep AusMalt supplied and because we're hungry, Eyre Peninsula growers - for the first time - are going to be seeing the sorts of premiums they've missed in the past," Mr Pyle said.

Mr Pyle said AusBulk was offering a range of contracts including Guaranteed Minimum Price contracts, dual year contracts that allowed growers to secure a price but spread their production risk over two seasons and US dollar multigrade contracts.
All AusBulk grain marketing's contracts would be multigrade and would be offered for specific malt barley varieties such as Sloop and Schooner.

"We need to secure our supplies for AusMalt and we've been able to reach a commercial arrangement with ABB to do this," said Mr Pyle. Mr Pyle said however, that AusBulk would not be offering cash prices during harvest. Growers who were interested in the various contracts could contact AusBulk's Grain Marketing Helpline on 1800 100 419.