HAMBURG, Oct 9 (Reuters) – European farmers have harvested an excellent crop of malting barley this year, giving beer brewers and whisky distillers plentiful supplies of their key raw material, experts say.
“The EU harvest has turned out much better than feared in early summer when extreme heat stressed some crops,” one barley trader said. “Supplies inside the EU look extremely good and I expect prices for malting barley to stay weak.”
The EU harvested about 28.5 million tonnes of spring barley this year of which 9 million tonnes will reach malting standard, almost matching last year’s particularly large crop of 29.5 million tonnes when about 9.5 million tonnes was of malting standard, traders estimated.
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Malting barley supply in France should remain ample this season after a big harvest.
Consultancy Strategie Grains estimates French malting barley production at about 4.7 million tonnes, close to 2014, with over half coming from winter barley.
“We have a context where malting crop supply is balanced in spring barley whereas for winter barley we can expect supply to be well in excess of demand,” Andree Defois of Strategie Grains said.
Germany’s crop of malting-quality barley is estimated to be unchanged at around 1.3 million tonnes.
Overall supplies in Britain appear ample after a good crop.
“The only quality concern of merit has been seen in Scotland where the wet weather is causing some germination issues,” said analyst Jack Watts of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. “Scotland is looking at a lower barley crop as well so that could entice more imports to Scotland from England.”
Britain’s farm ministry estimates the UK barley crop this summer rose 5 percent to 7.28 million tonnes.
There has been a significant shift in UK malt demand during the last decade, a period during which Scotland’s whisky industry has expanded significantly but Britain’s beer industry has contracted.
“As the Scottish malting barley demand has been expanding, England has been eyeing Scotland as a market for spring barley,” Watts said. “There is more and more malting barley moving into Scotland to meet that demand.”
Poland is estimated to have harvested 350,000-400,000 tonnes of malting barley this year, down from the 430,000 tonnes in 2014, estimates Wojtek Sabaranski of analysts Sparks Polska.
“Given the requirements of the Polish malting sector of about 500,000 tonnes of barley per season, Poland actually may have to import around 100,000-150,000 tonnes of malting barley this year,” Sabaranski said.
