Good rains arrived late February in Australia to give the country a respite from the long drought. However, dryness returned, and there is concern that conditions are not fully normal yet. There were some local rains along the coast West and East during the last weekend of March. A barley crop of 6 million tons is expected. Barley pool return outlooks for new crop malting barley have been published at A$ 220,-/230,- (US $ 132,-/138,-) for South Australia / Victoria by the ABB and at A $ 205,-/225,- (US $ 123,-/135,-) for Victoria / New South Wales by Market Link. Planting takes ideally place in April / May. ABB Grain supplied 280.000 tons of barley to the East Coast, which had the largest deficit of feed grains after the disastrous crop of 2002/2003 (3,268 Mill. tons). This reduced the South Australian export surplus accordingly. It is estimated that Grain Australia (ABB-GPWA) has reserve stocks for it’s LTA’s with Japan and a free export surplus of 150-200.000 tons of malting barley, mainly intended for China. Prices are quoted around US $ 240,- CIF China, business has been dull in recent months.

15 April, 2003