Ukraine actively trades in old crop barley

Ukraine actively trades in old-crop barley, which is in demand globally. Prices may rise further in the near future. However, a significant increase in barley supply from France is expected in the new season. This was discussed today during the analytical briefing of the PUSK cooperative, created within the VAR.

“We are actively trading old crops, in April we exported about 200 thousand tons. For May, we have already contracted 180 thousand tons, of which at least one ship will be sent to China. Therefore, barley prices are not falling, and may even grow. Another growth factor will be the price difference between corn and barley: corn is again $8-10 per ton more expensive, making barley more attractive to buyers. Notional prices may increase by $2-3 per ton in the near future, and CPT prices may reach $157-158 in a week. The prices of processors are in the range of 5400-5500 UAH/t,” – analysts say.

However, in the new season barley may fall in price. “The EU is expected to increase barley production by 11 mln tons. There is a lot of spring barley planted in the areas where winter crops were not sown. In particular, this applies to France, where many areas were not sown with winter crops and are now sown with barley and corn. Therefore, France is already actively selling the new harvest, in particular to China, as there may be a surplus of barley. That is, in the second half of June, prices for Ukrainian barley may also decline,” PUSK predicts. The conditional prices for the new harvest of Ukrainian barley are $150-155/t CPT port, $165-175/t DAP/CIF Constance.

Tags: Ukraine, export, barley, EU, prices, France