China imported 1.23 million tons of malting barley from July 2002 to February 2003: from Australia 953 thousand tons, from Canada 82 thousand tons. Imports for the grain year 2002/2003 may end up below 2 million tons, although EU deliveries should run up to 600 thousand tons in the next few months. Large new malting facilities should increase import volumes in future years. The Chinese administration seems finally to promote barley cultivation, and brewers and maltsters try to work with low-quality local barley already this year. But it seems excluded that China will become a genuine malting barley country, as other crops are more profitable for China’s farmers.

25 April, 2003