EU malt export licence bookings are almost 2.2 million tonnes in the former EU plus 24,000 tonnes in the new countries. Licence bookings now equal the total fixations of the crop year 2001/02 and are 160,000 tonnes ahead of the bookings of last year. Official statistics for the years 2001 and 2002 show physical exports of malt to third countries of 2.328 resp. 2.372 million tonnes, therefore one must wonder, if the statistics are fully correct. It must be taken into account, of course, that export licences have a usage margin of plus and minus 5 %. Official export data for 2003 are still not available. In any case it is obvious by now that the loudly announced reduction of exports has not taken place yet and will not take place during this calendar year.

16 June, 2004