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Barley: Exports have reached a plateau

February 8, 2018 at 4:14 PM , Starry Night Ltd.
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SOFIA. Regional market developments influence exports to non-EU markets. The weather has not favored farmers so far.

BULGARIA. From all the other external factors that influence the development of grains, the weather has been quite unpredictable so far in the year. Intermittent rains in some regions, followed by quite high temperatures for the season; sporadic snowfalls in higher altitude places, without substantial cover in fields to allow sufficient moisture to get through soil layers; and extremely low temperatures for a few days, followed by higher for the season ones have been the prevailing characteristics for the Winter. In the following several days, the forecast is for sporadic rains throughout the country, as the majority of showers will fall throughout the South, as temperatures will move between -5 to 14 Celsius degrees within regions of the country. So far in the year, there have been longer periods of time in some regions, where the winter season has unfailingly resembled an early spring time!

Barley: exports have expectedly reached a plateau

It is implausible to find larger quantities of barley for exports on the domestic market. Fulfilling their international contracts, local intermediary market players quickly steeped up export activities, after completion of harvest 2017-18, while later in the marketing season, the export rate have expectedly reached a plateau. Barley is harvested first among the rest of the grains such as wheat, rapeseed and corn, for instance, within the country, and since the nation is not a regionally substantial producer of the grain, the crop is quickly bought out. The grain mainly goes to markets of the EU such as Spain, Greece, among others.

      Harvest 2017-18

(01.07.2017 - 02.02.2018)

          units in MT

Beginning availability

22,000

Aggregate output

633,393

Imports

5,314

Domestic consumption

186,000

   beer production

46,500

   feed

139,500

Exports to the world

271,121

   to EU markets

243,332

   to rest of the world

    27,789

Source: Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture

Regional market developments have always influenced local sentiments. According to the most recent USDA report on World Agricultural Production, Russia collected 20.20 mmt or by 15.12% high on a yearly basis while Ukraine’s harvest reached 8.70 mmt, although it came short by 12.12% annually. The ample supplied of barley in the region has already influenced local exports to non-EU markets, as by the end of last week, exports to such destinations came to only 27,789 mt or by 80.36% less than exported volumes by that time last season.

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