Argentina: Sufficient availability of malting barley with a crop of 4.8 mln tonnes

Heavy rains support summer crop development (e.g. corn) in Argentina and improve the areas hit by drought conditions last year, RMI Analytics said in their late February report.

With a barley crop at 4.8 mln tonnes, there is sufficient availability of malting quality. Export of 3 mln tonnes or more is unlikely as Australia returns to supplying China, and the net impact is a building of ending stocks. There is a risk that export volumes decline further to the 2.5 mln tonnes level, unless other demand appears (e.g. Brazil).

Barley prices are down slightly for both malting and feed barley. Farmer selling of greater quantities of barley is taking place, with an estimated 41% of crop 2023 sold to date, versus 47% at this stage one year ago. Bids to farmers are moving downward as the trade continues to see limited demand from buyers for several weeks now. Economic challenges of hyper-inflation and a possible further currency devaluation are triggering farmer selling.

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