There is almost no demand for Ukrainian barley - GrainTrade

MOSCOW. Jan 26 (Interfax) - There is currently almost no demand for Ukrainian barley due to the absence of China's interest and weak demand on Ukraine's domestic market, Ukrainian media said, citing the GrainTrade electronic grain exchange.

Against the background of a shortage of offers and increased competition on the world market, the export of barley from Ukraine as of January 20 in the 2022-2023 marketing year (July 2022-June 2023) amounted to 1.76 million tonnes, whereas it stood at 5.4 million tonnes on the same date in the previous marketing year, GrainTrade said. Ukraine harvested 6 million tonnes of barley in the 2022-2023 marketing year as compared to 9.4 million tonnes in the 2021-2022 marketing year, and 7.4 million tonnes in the 2020-2021 marketing year, it said.

During the two previous marketing years, 45% of the barley exported from Ukraine was bought by China, in particular, 2.9 million tonnes in the 2020-2021 marketing year, and 2.6 million tonnes in the 2021-2022 marketing year, but this marketing year, China's demand for Ukrainian barley is almost absent due to problems with the delivery of agricultural products from Ukraine to Asian markets, it said.

In recent years, China begun to actively buy French barley, especially against the background of trade disputes with Australia and a decrease in supplies from Ukraine. In January, Chinese importers purchased up to ten batches of French fodder barley weighing 600,000-900,000 thousand tonnes with delivery in the coming months, so the demand for Ukrainian barley will remain minimal for the time being, GrainTrade said.

Besides, domestic breweries show very little interest in malting barley, because these enterprises currently need a smaller amount of raw materials due to regular power supply disruptions.

"Against the background of low export demand, the purchase prices for barley in the ports of Ukraine remain at the level of $175-$190 per tonne, or 7,000-7,200 hryvni per tonne SRT, while the prices for deliveries to the port of fodder wheat and corn have risen to $200-$215 per tonne," GrainTrade said.

The electronic grain exchange also said that in its January report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated world barley production in the 2022-2023 marketing year at 149.5 million tonnes, which will almost match the level of the 2021-2022 marketing year, but will be 10.8 million tonnes lower than the 160.27 million tonnes in the 2020-2021 marketing year. In the report, the barley harvest forecast for Ukraine is reduced by 0.3 to 6.1 million tonnes, but is increased for Argentina by 0.1 to 4.2 million tonnes. For Australia, the barley production forecast remains at the level of 13.4 million tonnes, at 51.5 million tonnes for the European Union, and at 10 million tonnes for Canada.