Osaka tax authorities have detected that after a tax audit that the beverages maker Suntory did not declare 760 million yen in taxable income over a four-year period through December 2003, Kyodo announced on December 19.

The Regional Taxation Bureau of Osaka has imposed 240 million yen in back and penalty taxes against Suntory, and the company has made the payment in full.

The sources said Suntory failed to list some dividends it earned through equity holdings of overseas companies.

For the five months of market year 2005/2006 Ukraine malt production increased by 27.5% year-on-year from 115.1 thousand metric tonnes in July-November 2004 to 146.8 thousand tonnes in July-November 2005.

In November 2005 Ukraine has registered a slight decrease in malt production volumes versus the previous month. According to the statistical data, in November Ukrainian maltsters produced 32,3 thousand tonnes of malt, that is by 3% less than in October 2005.

In comparison with November 2004, the production volume increased by 6.1 thousand tonnes (+ 23%), according to APK-Inform reports and Ukrainian Goskomstat.

The leading Ukrainian malt manufactures are: Kharkov based company Malteurop with a malt output of 8,300 tonnes in November 2005; OAO Slavutsky Malting plant, which produced about 6.900 metric tonnes of malt in November 2005; Chernigov based unit of Malteurop Ukraine with 3,600 tonnes; Berdichevsky Malting plant with 4,000 tonnes and ZAO Obolon Brewery with 4,000 tonnes.

During January-October 2005 China imported about 1.88 million metric tonnes of barley. Total imports for 2005-2006 should be at around 2.1 million metric tonnes, USDA revealed in its Grain Report on December 12. USDA’s estimations for Chinese malt imports for 2004-2005 are of 2 million metric tonnes.

Chinese barley consumption for 2005-2006 is forecast by USDA at 5 million metric tonnes compared to 4.9 million metric tonnes in 2004-2005 and 4.7 million metric tonnes in 2003-2004.

Chinese barley production for 2005-2006 is forecast by USDA at 2.8 million metric tonnes compared to 2.9 million metric tonnes in 2004-2005 and 2.72 million metric tonnes in 2003-2004.

USDA made only minor adjustments to their U.S. barley production, supply and demand balance sheet in December. They lowered imports by 5 mbu to only 10 mbu, raised U.S. exports by 5 mbu to 30 mbu, and lowered U.S. ending stocks by 10 mbu to 101 mbu, Idaho Barley Commission reported on December 15.

• World barley production is now projected to decrease 11.8% to 135.2 MMT. US production fell 24.1% to 4.6 MMT.

• World barley supplies are estimated to decrease by 4.4% to 167.6 MMT. US supplies decreased by 14.9% to 7.4 MMT.

• World barley trade is expected to decrease by 1.4% to 16.9 MMT. US exports are expected to decrease 60% to .300 MMT.

• World barley consumption is pegged to decrease slightly to 142.7 MMT. US usage projected to decrease by 16% to 4.8 MMT.

• World barley carryover stocks are estimated to decrease 23.2% to 24.9 MMT. US carryout is projected to decrease by 22% to 2.2 MMT.