EU: Barley market this week can really be described as dull, analysts said

With EU domestic prices and the weaker Dollar the replacement levels have decreased slightly and the trade would expect Brussels to sell intervention stocks at lower Dollar equivalent prices, analysts have commented. This is reflected in the nominal quotes to North Africa slightly lower this week.

Export demand is very slow into the Mediterranean region but there is little Black Sea barley offered. Middle East buyers are also quiet but more due to the perception that Australia with their increasing barley crop will need to be aggressive sellers. It is a little bit of a cat and mouse game, who will show their position first.

Our guess is that the buyers will keep to low bids until the sellers relent and trade the bid level. Third Country nominal quotes for Mediterranean destinations with values based EU execution to Algeria about $155, Morocco about $154 and based optional origin to Saudi Arabia is about $161.

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 .