Australia: Harvesting is virtually finished; a crop figure between 7.75 and 8.0 million tonnes is reported, according to analysts. The barley is sound of fair to good quality. Proteins are low, 8-9 % for a large part of the crop. That is one of the reasons that the Australians expect only 30-35 % of their receivals to be of malting quality. After deduction of the local malting demand of 800,000 tonnes it would leave an export surplus of 1.5 to 2.0 million tonnes. Such a surplus figure looks small, as Australia not only sells to China, but also to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, South Africa and South America. On top of it, the premium for malting above feed barley is unrewarding, as everywhere this year.

27 February, 2004