Australia: Barley pools remain unchanged

ABB Grain Ltd has reviewed its gross barley pool indicators for 2005/2006 and has left its price estimates unchanged, ABB released on May 03.

ABB Grain’s General Manager Marketing, Nigel Officer, said the estimates remained steady despite recent upward currency movements in the Australian dollar which has seen the Aussie climb to around 76 cents against the greenback.

“Chinese demand for malting barley is starting to come to the fore, while feed barley is fully committed with most of it expected to be shipped by the end of June,” Mr Officer said.

“The prospects for 2006/2007 are also looking promising and while it’s still early days yet, favourable rains in the past week in most regions bode well for planting about to begin, or in some cases already underway.

“We will continue to review our estimates for 2006/2007 on a regular basis in light of developments in the northern hemisphere harvest and currency movements in particular.”

The current estimate for the 2005/2006 No.1 Victorian pool, which closed on October 31, is $191/tonne for malting barley and A$168/t for feed barley in the No.1 pool.

In the east coast pool (Victoria, NSW and Queensland) the gross barley pool indicators for the No.2 pools (which closed on January 24) is A$186/t for malting barley and A$163/t for feed barley No.2.

For the No.3 pools which opened in Victoria, NSW and Queensland on January 24, the estimate is A$168/t for malting barley with feed barley at A$150/t.

A A$5/t premium applies to the Baudin and Sloop varieties although this is the last season in which this premium will apply.

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