USA & Canada: Fair barley crop conditions reported

In Canada the pattern of malting barley varieties has changed dramatically over the past years. The formerly dominant six-row barley covers only 9% of the barley acreage now, experts stated. Metcalfe is the largest two-row variety with 54% of the acreage, while Harrington has declined to 8 %. Both the U.S. and Canada report fair crop conditions. Planted area in the U.S. is forecast at 1.415 million ha vs. 1.585 million ha last year. Estimate of area to be harvested is only 1.210 million ha, an average yield of 3.5 tons/ha would produce a crop of 4.25 million tons. Crops were 4.6 million t last year and above 6 million t in 2003 and 2004. As the demand for malting barley is 3.0 million t, the U.S. will have to import large quantities from Canada.

14 July, 2006