Russia planted less barley than a year ago, IGC forecasts a crop of 16.5 million tonnes versus 17.9 in 2003. Present conditions promise better quality than last year. During July/March 2003/04 Russia imported 219,000 tonnes of barley, of which 69,000 tonnes (feed) from Kazakhstan and 150,000 tonnes of malting barley from the EU. Exports of feed barley during the same period were 2.935 million tonnes.

23 June, 2004