North America: Barley situation as of 30 Jan. 2006
In the U.S. there are pessimistic estimates of barley plantings in 2006, the crop figure may drop again. Stocks on the 1st of December 2005, were 4.528 million tonnes, 15 % down from 5.356 million tonnes in 2004.
Canada re-entered the feed barley market in the current crop year, shipments August-November included 355,000 tonnes to Saudi-Arabia and 324,000 tonnes to Iran. China received 140,000 tonnes of malting barley. Total Canadian exports till mid January amounted to 1.400 million tonnes versus only 430,000 tonnes a year ago.