There has been registered a theoretical deficit of malting barley of 1.5 million tons in the world. Nevertheless market prices started a steep decline in January in Europe and to lesser extent in the USA. Only Canada and Australia escaped the price decline, quite understandable after their crop disasters. Industries, trade and analysts asked themselves, what had gone wrong with a bull market without sufficient supplies. One consequence should be that markets would react more cautiously to bad crop news in the future. However, we believe that local markets will still react to any developments within their own areas.

08 May, 2003