Barley: Weather conditions yet to favor farmers
February 15, 2018 at 4:31 PM ,
Starry Night Ltd.
BULGARIA. Although the country is a relatively small regional producer of barley, on an annual basis, the majority of the grain is exported. A case in point, during the previous marketing season, exported share to the world amounted close to 54% of national output, which reached 697,787 mt while domestic consumption came to 46%. As a result, imports are meager and amount to a few metric tons yearly.
Barley: domestic patterns of development
There are some notable patterns of development on the domestic market. Consumption of barley by the livestock sector has experienced a noticeable change, as on a yearly basis the difference is close to 11% in favor of the current season. The dynamics of the wheat export market, which have been quite vibrant since the beginning of the marketing season, and the high-quality characteristics of barley this year have compelled local mills to switch to cheaper alternative grains. In addition, barley demand for malt in the beer production sector has been increasing, somewhat slightly higher than that of last year at that time, and by the end of the marketing season could well reach 80,000 mt.
|
Harvest 2017-18 (01.07.2017 - 09.02.2018) units in MT |
|
|
Beginning availability |
22,000 |
|
Aggregate output |
633,393 |
|
Imports |
5,314 |
|
Domestic consumption |
192,000 |
|
beer production |
48,000 |
|
feed |
144,000 |
|
Exports to the world |
273,157 |
|
to EU markets |
245,332 |
|
to rest of the world |
27,825 |
Source: Bulgarian Ministry of Agriculture
Weather has chosen a side – not quite favoring farmers
Although overall conditions of crops throughout the country look good, farmers’ long expectations for thick snow cover have turned futile so far. The weather during January and through the middle of February offered them trickling alms in regard to their wishes. However, the weather forecast during the last ten-day period of the month could actually bring them snow falls while temperatures are expected to remain low long enough to preserve the snow cover for at least a week in the fields of some regions. Yet, the Winter so far has been lacking in the so necessary thick snow throughout the regions of the whole country that would otherwise permit sufficient amounts of moisture to penetrate the different soil layers.
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