North America: Imported barley bridging supply gap until harvest 2022 is available

The last two weeks in February have brought about a bit of relief to the moisture situation across Canada and the USA, RMI Analytics said in their latest report.

The overall situation remains dry with more moisture required before planting season to break the current drought cycle.

Barley imports from Europe, Australia, and Argentina are bridging supply gap until harvest 2022 is available and the switch over to crop 2022 will be very rapid, the analysts said.

Adding further competition to malting barley for crop 2022 are the higher wheat and corn prices. Higher wheat prices are adding pressure for malting barley planted area in 2022, higher corn prices are keeping feed barley prices up and could lead farmers to shift into feed barley varieties.

Canadian barley export prices are lower for crop 2021 but remain highly theoretical at this stage, given barley imports. For crop 2022, indications are provided as well, lower than for 2021 but with little trade interest to transact.

Feed barley prices in south Alberta are firm at CAD435/tonne (CAD425 in the previous report published in early February) while delivered corn is CAD410/tonne. New crop feed barley prices are lower at CAD375/tonne which indicates the market anticipates a ‘normal’ crop result while corn values are roughly the equivalent to feed barley.

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