E-Malt.com News article: Australia: Malting and feed barley exports down in September

Australia exported 386,069 tonnes of barley and 108,940t of sorghum in September, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The barley figure comprises 298,179t of feed, down 30 percent from the August total, and 87,980t of malting, down 53pc.

September’s sorghum exports are half the August total, and all three categories reflect a rundown of stocks.

China was the market for 96pc of Australia’s September feed barley exports, 92pc of its malting barley exports, and 95pc of sorghum exports.

Behind China on malting barley, Vietnam was the destination for 5334t and Singapore 2072t.

On feed barley, only two destinations other than China register for more than 3000t, namely Vietnam on 3038t and Thailand on 3175t, while the only sorghum markets taking more than 1ooot are Taiwan on 2887t and The Philippines 1870t.

The September figures round out a record year for Australian barley exports of 11.48 million tonnes, as detailed in Peter McMeekin’s article published on Grain Central on Tuesday.

“Barley exports declined steeply into the end of the shipping year, with the running down of available export stocks combining with a continuing soft front end demand profile in China,”McDonald Pelz senior broker Sam Roache said.

“The slowing down of exports is as expected, and there are no indications that this extends as a normal shipping month into new-crop timeframes, where we see November stems already showing healthy volumes.”

Mr Roache said production estimates for the current Australian harvest point to a “monster crop” likely to smash the export record set in 2025-26.

“While November export stems show good volumes, the underlying demand and softness in the front months doesn’t indicate that current prices are promoting the record demand we need.

“Looking at export prices versus last season, we are well over where we were this time last year, when the record export program for 2025-26 was being aggressively priced.

“Alternative feedgrain parities don’t look supportive of a big price premium versus last season, and it is therefore unlikely that we are pricing aggressively enough to ensure a record demand profile which we need to move the crop.”

Sorghum exports dived in September, and are expected to continue the downtrend as stocks run down with the ending of the bulk-shipment program.

“We expect minor volumes to leak out over the next few months, with demand present only for smalls at sizable price premiums.”

Mr Roache said recent and continuing rains in southern and Central Queensland and northern New South Wales have helped improve new-crop prospects, with production of a similar size to the previous year now expected.

“For new crop, we expect strong competition on price and volume from Brazil, after their first export year saw the quality and flows very well received.”



14 November, 2026