China & Saudi Arabia: China’s barley imports beating forecasts, Saudi Arabia may need more than 9 mln tonnes this year

The new Saudi Arab grain purchaser SAGO held 4 tenders so far, their regular purchase volume is 1.5 mln tonnes per two months, which should end up with 9 mln tonnes for the year, H. M. Gauger GmbH analysts estimate.

Some other industry analysts doubt that such a quantity is sufficient for the domestic demand in Saudi Arabia, however.

China imported 3.27 mln tonnes of barley in Jan/April of this year, of which 1.1 mln tonnes in April. Main suppliers were Australia of 2.8 mln tonnes and Canada of 450,000 tonnes (Jan/April).

Analysts had forecast imports of only 4.2 to 4.5 mln tonnes for the whole year, which looks far too low by now.

The world barley S/D looks very tight, but altogether grain stocks are ample and will prevent run-away barley markets, H. M. Gauger analysts said.

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