Canada & China: CWB said sales of malting barley to China to decline

The Canadian Wheat Board said on December 13 sales of malting barley to China, one of Canada's top grain export markets, will likely slump in this marketing year as it can't meet China's quality requirements.

CWB President and Chief Executive Officer Adrian Measner said in an interview with Reuters that exports of Canadian malting barley to China, the world's largest importer of barley for the brewing of beer, would likely drop by about 25 percent in 2005/06 from 700,000 tons last year due to quality problems.

The CWB holds a monopoly on sales of wheat, durum and barley to millers, maltsters and export markets from the Canadian Prairies.

Measner was in Tokyo for an annual visit to CWB customers.

Measner said he was braced for tougher competition in the Chinese market with Australia, which is the world's largest barley exporter and aimed to step up selling to China. Despite expected drops in sales to China, CWB was keeping its overall export projections for wheat and barley in 2005/06 unchanged from its October forecasts, Measner said.

CWB said in October it planned to export 11.5 million tons of wheat, 3.5 million tons of durum and 2 million tons of barley in 2005/06.