Australia: ABB Grain said barley pools closed – new pools opened

ABB Grain Ltd announced on January 24 it has closed its barley pools nationally but has immediately opened new pools.

ABB’s general manager marketing, Nigel Officer, said the decision to close the existing pools – the No.1 malting and No.1 feed barley pools in South Australia and the No.2 malting and No.2 feed barley pools in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland – was due to several factors.

“The primary reason is to protect the interests of growers who have already delivered to the pools,” Mr Officer said. “There is a possibility, given the large size of the Australian barley crop, that we will still be marketing some of this when the next northern hemisphere crop becomes available – therefore we will be in competition with that crop.

“Also, the recent appreciation of the Australian dollar has led us to make this decision to close the pools in the best commercial interests of growers who have already delivered to us. Growers are aware that ABB can do this at any time.”

ABB will open a No.2 pool in South Australia for malting barley with a gross indicator price of A$170/tonne and a No.2 pool for feed barley with a gross indicator price of A$150/t.

Growers delivering to the new pools will receive a first advance payment of A$122/t for malting barley and A$111/t for feed barley, payable after delivery of their grain.

In Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, ABB has opened a No.3 pool, following closure of its No.2 pools, with identical gross indicator prices and first advance payments to that in South Australia.

The current gross indicator prices for the pools which closed today are: Malting barley No.1 (South Australia) A$188/t, Feed barley No.1 (South Australia) A$163/t; east coast pool (Victoria, NSW, Queensland) Malting barley No.2 A$188/t; Feed barley No.2 $163/t.

These prices are unchanged from the last pool update issued by ABB on January 18.

27 January, 2006