EU: Baltics, Scandinavian barley crops significantly damaged by weather

Drought conditions are so bad in the Baltic/Scandinavian regions this year that most locals cannot remember a similar situation, H. M. Gauger GmbH said in their July report.

Denmark and South Sweden, in normal years reliable suppliers of quality barley, had planted much larger acreages than usual (spring barley plantings in Denmark were 685,000 ha vs. 540,000 ha last year, Sweden 380,000 vs. 290,000 ha). Normally they would have collected record crops. However, weather has decimated and damaged crops to a great extent.

Present estimates of exportable surpluses range from 200 to 500,000 tonnes in Denmark, and are seen at zero for Sweden. Poland is terribly dry throughout the country except for very south and will probably not harvest enough malting barley vs. its needs of 500,000 tonnes. Easy import supplies cannot be seen neither from its northern nor southern neighbours. Prospects are very poor as well in Finland and the Baltic States, they may just be able to muster enough supplies for their own industries, but will hardly export any malting or feed barley, the Gauger analysts said.

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