Bring out your barley! Bring out your barley!
Those weren’t exactly the words of Lorne Hehn, chief commissioner for the Canadian Wheat Board, at the Agriculture Production Days in Manitoba earlier this month, but that was the implication.
Hehn mused that perhaps the board will consider lowering its specifications for the premium grade on the current malting barley crop. Buyers probably will be willing to accept slightly lower quality barley for malting, he said, although price may be discounted.
Stocks of malting barley have nearly been exhausted, and export records have been set. Hehn added there’s still strong demand for the crop.
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The reason is simple. The world market has lost one of its main suppliers, and Canada lost its main competitor, as drought in Australia ruined the 1994 barley crop.
The latest estimate from the International Wheat Council in London pegs Australian barley at 2.9 million tonnes, compared to 7.2 million tonnes in 1993.
With domestic feed and malting customers to supply first, Australia’s offshore markets – mainly in Asia – have been left wide open to competitors.
The Americans could be contenders, except as of the end of December they had already bought 572,000 tonnes of Canadian barley, according to Canadian Grain Commission statistics. About half that is likely destined for malt.
The European Union could also be a contender but isn’t growing as much barley because of acreage reductions under the Common Agricultural Policy reforms.
“We’re the only game in town,” said Glenn Lennox, cereals analyst with the Grain Policy Directorate in Winnipeg. “If they want beer, they have to come to us.”
Perry Cochrane, commodity manager for malting barley with Saskatchewan Wheat Pool, said he gets calls from a new customer at least once a week. Most are Chinese, he said. His only problem is meeting the quality specifications these buyers want.
Bob Sutton of Canada Malt in Calgary said even if the board changed its specs, it wouldn’t affect his buying patterns.
By this time of the year, Sutton is normally finished his buying. But this year he’s still in the market.
The message for farmers? If you’ve got borderline barley that didn’t make malt earlier in the year, resubmit your samples. Or take new ones.
They might make the grade on the second try.
