With the wet autumn of 2012, focus is very much upon how much spring barley will be planted for the coming harvest in the UK, HGCA reported on May, 30.
Traditionally, with a wet autumn in which winter cropping is disrupted, spring barley is often seen as the best alternative. For example, the 2001 harvest was also preceded by a wet autumn leading to the UK spring barley area increasing by 45% year-on-year to 783 thousand ha.
The latest Defra Supply and Demand Balance Sheets estimate that for 2012/13 barley imports increased by 30 thousand tonnes to 190 thousand tonnes, but this was more than offset by a larger increase in animal feed use to 3.242 mln tonnes. Human and industrial usage was forecast down by 4 thousand tonnes.
According to the latest Defra data, barley usage by brewers, distillers and maltsters was 158.9 thousand tonnes in March, down from 159.6 thousand tonnes in March 2012. Season-to-date usage is 1353.6 thousand tonnes, 7.9 thousand tonnes more than at the same point last season.
According to HMRC, 5.2 thousand tonnes of barley was exported, 17.3 thousand tonnes less than in February and 57.9 thousand tonnes less than March 2012.
Season-to-date (July–March) exports are less than half of last year’s 370.9 thousand tonnes down from the same point in 2012. Malt exports so far this season are 7.8 thousand tonnes less than last year, reflecting higher domestic usage.
Barley imports were 28.7 thousand tonnes in March and are now 48.9 thousand tonnes more than at the same point in 2012.
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