Barley Intervention To Save The Day?

With a barley crop of over 60 MMT this year, the EU-27 will account for around 42% of the entire global production of the grain in 2009/10. Strange though it might sound, little old UK on it's own produces more barley than the whole of America.

With demand from the maltsters slack at best, what are we going to do with it all?

Step forward intervention. With barley the intervention price set to be around EUR102 when it opens in November it's unlikely that there will be a shortage of EU sellers this year.

What there probably will be a shortage of however is enough stores to put the bloody stuff in.

Even in countries like France and Germany, where growers rarely need to resort to using the safety net, significant volumes could well be offered this year. FranceAgriMer forecast that barley ending stocks there will more than double in 2009/10 to 3.4 MMT.

The RPA, which is in charge of intervention in the UK, say that they are "currently receiving a large number of enquiries from traders in England and Scotland who are considering offering barley into intervention."

See: Intervention Cereals - Purchases FAQ