Because of the large spring barley acreage in France and Germany (replanting of lost winter wheat fields) and the favourable weather conditions in the North – Ireland, U.K. and Scandinavia – the EU harvested a large crop of malting barley, most of it of good quality. Estimates of the overall surplus – on paper – range from 1.0 to 1.5 million tonnes. Denmark with 1 million tonnes, France with 850,000 tonnes and the U.K. with 560,000 tonnes will be the largest exporters of spring barley, the combined Belgian and German deficit will at least be 1.2 million tonnes.

24 October, 2003