Australia: Australian barley increasingly sought to cover shortages in Northern hemisphere

With a generally good barley crop 2021 in place, the world is increasingly looking at Australia to cover shortages in the Northern hemisphere, RMI Analytics said in their late February report.

At 13.4 mln tonnes with a very good Western Australia crop there is ample supply of quality malting barley available. The ability to physically load vessels must work around all crops, where terminal capacity through the end of Q2 is full.

Current lower soil moisture levels are encouraging, particularly in eastern Australia, for planting crop 2022 barley.

Like elsewhere in the world, wheat and feed barley prices are moving sharply higher, and this is true in Australia as well. With a busy shipment schedule already in place, there is limited ability for Australia to replace any major interruption in the Black Sea region. Feed barley is up while malting barley is down slightly as compared to early February.

Australian barley prices remain the most competitive globally and new markets, including North America, are looking to Australia. A malt cargo to Mexico was recently loaded illustrating competitiveness of Australian barley and malt prices globally.