EU & UK: Malting barley premiums remain quite wide in crop 2023

French prices for malting barley are up slightly for crop 2023, with crop 2024 mostly steady. The demand situation remains poor with malt shipments running behind last year levels and barley prices are rather unexciting at present, RMI Analytics said in their December report.

From an external perspective, the wider wheat market has ample supply from a large Russian wheat crop, and makes competition for new business difficult. French wheat futures are stable and this has an influence over barley prices as well, despite a rather tight supply of quality malting barley after the problems experienced in northern Europe and Scandinavia. Malting premiums remain quite wide in crop 2023, while crop 2024 values are lower.

According to the analysts, the demand environment remains soft, and malting barley prices are down slightly. In the UK, lagging shipments from Q4 2023 leave the start of 2024 with more supply than demand. The UK trade is less willing to sell forward positions until the current backlog situation is remedied. In Denmark, the extended dormancy period ends December 15 (UK stayed with November 15 deadline) and some trades have been washed out due to these germination concerns, it is reported.

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