EU: EU barley market situation for 2005


The EU barley will be almost 10 Mill. tons lower than last year, at 52,5 Mill. tons. The biggest loss occurred in Spain: 5,5 – 6 Mill. tons. Even taking the small intervention stock of 1,3 Mill. tons into account, the EU will have a net export surplus of no more than 5 Mill. tons. Price patterns may reduce feed consumption of barley (37,5 Mill. tons), which would result in a larger surplus, analysts believe. As North African crops were as bad as in Spain, and the Middle East is a large barley importer as well, export demand is booming so that the EU Commission could grant 150.000 tons of restitutions at zero refund. Thereby world market prices of feed barley of US $ 135,-/140,- FOB seaports are fixed for some time, and competitors will happily follow such levels.

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