Spring Barley Report Europe

The crop of spring barley this year was in many countries of the EU very good in quality and quantity.

Especially in the North and the Central of Europe, experts report on excellent yields and qualities. In Denmark there are yields from 5.7 t/ha to 5.8 t/ha, protein content of up to 10 % and the screening results are up to 90 %. The Finnish also have higher yields and a better screening result than last year with 3.6 t and 92 %. Sweden is also very pleased with their results. They have yields of 4.6 t/ha in the south and protein contents with an average of 10.2 %. France describes its yield as extraordinary good with 6.8 t/ha and screening results of 95 %. The amount of malting barley with 86 % is considerably higher as it was in 2008. In Germany it was also possible to yield approximately 2.2 Mio t of spring barley with an average yield of 5.3 t/ha even though there was a smaller acreage than in 2008. The low protein contents and the good screening results led to a large part of malting barley. A similar situation is described for the Netherlands.

In Britain the harvest was more difficult. They had wet weather during the harvest, which often led to quality problems. Nevertheless an export surplus of about 1 Mio t is expected from Great Britain. Similar weather conditions occurred in Ireland, which also led to quality problems. This is why experts do not expect any exports from this country. In Austria market participants report smaller yields as in 2008 with worse quality. Nevertheless they expect enough barley on the market. In Poland there was a higher production based on higher yields. Still there occurred problems with diseases especially in the south. This is why experts expect a higher need of imports this year. The yield in the Slovak Republic and in the Czech Republic has a lower quality this year due to higher protein contents. Spain also has a need of import.

Despite the quality problems in some countries of the EU, there is surplus on the market.

The expectations vary from 1 to more than 2 Mio t surplus. The demand of other countries will help to relieve the market. In general the demand on malt is too slight. This is why the malt houses are not working to capacity. It’s talk of averagely 80 to 85 % of their capacities-with huge differences in the different countries and companies. At the moment spring malting barley and feed barley are dealt on similar price levels. It‘s possible, that it will be sold to the intervention. Even spontaneous increases of market prices for spring malting barley as at the end of October cannot change this situation. Market participants expect the acreage to be reduced next year because of the difficult income situations of the farmers. This is already noticeable at the prices that are paid for October 2010.The maltsters are interested in barley with 145 to 155 EUR/t free Oberrhein. For the farmers this would again mean 120 to 130 EUR/t.

Spring Barley 2009 Europe (Status End of October 2009)