Australia: Malting, feed barley exports decline in April this year

Australia exported 593,671 tonnes of barley and 400,170t of sorghum in April, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Grain Central reported.

The barley figure comprises 470,448t of feed and 123,223t of malting, with the feed total being down 26 percent from the 635,917t shipped in March, and malting total down 12pc for the month.

Vietnam on 122,438t, Japan on 91,644t and Thailand on 91,570t were the volume destinations for feed barley, with Mexico on 99,000t followed by Japan on 20,612t the largest malting markets.

Sorghum exports jumped 73pc for the month from the 231,216t shipped in March to reflect the arrival of new-crop volume, with around three-quarters of it leaving Brisbane in bulk bound for China.

The sorghum harvest is going at full pace in Central Queensland, and is over in New South Wales and southern Qld.

In its Australian Crop Report released on June 6, ABARES forecast the Qld crop now being harvest at 1.69 million tonnes (Mt) over 480,000ha, while the NSW crop is estimated at 760,000t from 190,000ha.

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