UK: UK’s record barley crop amounts to 7.36 mln tonnes this year

The UK has harvested another record crop, 7.36 mln tonnes, of which 4.3 mln tonnes of spring barley, H. M. Gauger GmbH reported on December 5.

Pre-harvest sales of English barley amounted to a few hundred thousand tonnes, most of which were bought back in the meantime. Reasons were high protein and germination problems in South England, which drove up domestic price levels and made wash-outs attractive for the trade.

AHDB quality survey of submitted samples: Scotland 10% and less protein, England mostly between 11 and 12% protein, but the analysts wonder whether those results are really the average.

Buyers’ bids point to bad shorts in the market. Scotland experienced a long and fearful harvest period from August till November, but finally collected a large enough crop of good quality barley, with low proteins as needed by the distilling industries.

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