Argentina: Prospects of barley, wheat crop sharply reduced by drought in Argentina

The drought has sharply reduced the crops of wheat and barley, also the pace of maize planting in Argentina, H. M. Gauger GmbH said in their November report.

The Buenos Aires grain exchange has reduced the wheat crop estimate from 21.0 to 15.2 mln tonnes, the barley production from 5.4 to 4.7 mln tonnes. Private estimates are lower, e.g. only 4.0 mln tonnes of barley.

Domestic barley consumption in 2022/23 is forecast at 1.5 mln tonnes, exports of malting barley to its South American neighbours at 0.75 mln tonnes, which would leave a surplus for overseas exports of 1.5 mln.

So far farmers have sold only 865 thousand tonnes of new crop barley, and export licences have been booked of 1.025 mln tonnes. For comparison, old crop barley shipments in Janiuary-September 2022 were 3.4 mln tonnes. Rumours were that China had bought between 300 and 500 thousand tonnes of new crop FAQ barley, but also, that sales contracts had been switched to other origins.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .