It had been known for some time that EU malting plants could not profit at all from the crop disasters in Canada and Australia. And sales for 2003 to Brazil, Japan and Russia were smaller than in the year before. When the long general strike hit Venezuela and shipments to Eastern Europe were hindered by ice in the Baltic Sea, stocks started to build up in factories and in seaports. Poor call-offs in Germany fueled the crisis.

04 April, 2003