EU: Spring malting barley prices up amid uncertainty of French crop

Rollercoaster continues on the European markets with new peak levels reached on June 30 for European spring malting barley, GrainCom reported on the same day.

There are lots of speculation about the status of the French spring malting barley, how low the yields will be and how bad the quality will be, industry sources said.

Conditions in the UK and Denmark are fine, no worries at this very moment. But it’s clear that we need good crops in these two countries in order to balance the European S&D for spring barley.

On the way up, several pricings for the EU brewing and malting industry took place, with the most country merchants and cooperatives still absent from the selling side, GrainCom said.

Harvest of winter malting barley is more than 50/60% completed. Yields are a bit below the 5-year average, moisture levels are low, protein levels are high to very high, calibration is ok.