Spain: Barley crop size below 7 million tons for the grain year 2005/06

Estimates of the Spanish barley crop provide meager results for this season. Local sources speak of poor yields, very low hl-weight, and indicate a crop size below 7 million tons, analysts communicated. Earlier estimates are still above 8 million t. The summer heat started very early this year in Spain and affected the ripening crops in Castilla-La-Mancha and Castilla y Leon, the centre of Spanish grain production. According to local sources malting barley imports will be necessary.

As earlier reported, at the end of the grain year 2005/06 EU barley statistics look disappointing. Exports were 2.87 million tons vs. 3.47 million t in 2004/05. Intervention stocks increased by 800,000 tons to 2.3 million t in spite of export and domestic sales of 1.7 million t. Exports against “zero refund” licences amounted to 886,000 t and experts estimate that less than half of that quantity was malting barley.

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