Ukraine: Spring barley sowing almost completed

Spring barley sowing has been almost completed in Ukraine, which allows for making preliminary forecasts of barley production and exports in the 2016/17 marketing year, Black Sea Grain reported on May 24.

Currently market forecasts of barley production are set at around 7.7-8.7 mln tonnes. In particular, USDA forecasts Ukraine’s barley harvest at 7.8 mln tonnes, the Agriculture Ministry of Ukraine – at 8.67 mln tonnes, UkrAgroConsult – at 8.1 mln tonnes.

70% will be traditionally shipped abroad in July-September. Saudi Arabia will remain the largest importer of Ukrainian barley with total import demand at record high of 9.5 mln tonnes, analysts believe.

Meanwhile, demand from China may slightly decrease, due to the policy of feed grain stocks reduction in the country. As a reminder, in the current season China has imported record high volume of Ukrainian barley – 686 thousand tonnes.

24 May, 2016