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CANADIAN BARLEY EXPORTS SURGE

January 8, 2019

Canada’s barley exports in the first 4 1/2 months of the year (Aug to mid Dec) reached 954,000 tonnes, ahead of last year’s strong program at this time of 772,000 tonnes, and well ahead of the 5-year average of 519,000 tonnes.

Looking at StatCan export data, the big year over year difference on exports has occurred in sales to Japan at 57,400 tonnes in the first 3 months (3,059 tonnes last year at this time), as well as the Middle East (Kuwait and UAE) where 105,000 tonnes were shipped in October.  Sales to China, at 278,000 tonnes as of October, lag last year’s movement which was 399,000 in the first 3 months of the marketing year.

Looking at other exporters, as of their December estimate the USDA has Australia barley exports forecast at 5.4 mln tonnes (6.1 mln tonnes in 2017-18); Russia barley exports at 4.7 mln tonnes (5.8 mln tonnes in 2017-18); Ukraine barley exports at 4.5 mln tonnes (4.3 mln tonnes in 2017-18) and EU exports at 5.3 mln tonnes compared with 5.8 mln tonnes in 2017-18.