Australia details year's sorghum, record barley shipments

A cargo bound for China loads 56,000t of barley and 6600t of milling oats in August at CBH’s terminal in Albany. Photo: CBH Group

AUSTRALIA exported 386,069 tonnes of barley and 108,940t of sorghum in September, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The barley figure comprises 298,179t of feed, down 30 percent from the August total, and 87,980t of malting, down 53pc.

September’s sorghum exports are half the August total, and all three categories reflect a rundown of stocks.

China was the market for 96pc of Australia’s September feed barley exports, 92pc of its malting barley exports, and 95pc of sorghum exports.

Behind China on malting barley, Vietnam was the destination for 5334t and Singapore 2072t.

On feed barley, only two destinations other than China register for more than 3000t, namely Vietnam on 3038t and Thailand on 3175t, while the only sorghum markets taking more than 1ooot are Taiwan on 2887t and The Philippines 1870t.

The September figures round out a record year for Australian barley exports of 11.48 million tonnes, as detailed in Peter McMeekin’s article published on Grain Central on Tuesday.

“Barley exports declined steeply into the end of the shipping year, with the running down of available export stocks combining with a continuing soft front end demand profile in China,”McDonald Pelz senior broker Sam Roache said.

“The slowing down of exports is as expected, and there are no indications that this extends as a normal shipping month into new-crop timeframes, where we see November stems already showing healthy volumes.”

Mr Roache said production estimates for the current Australian harvest point to a “monster crop” likely to smash the export record set in 2025-26.

“While November export stems show good volumes, the underlying demand and softness in the front months doesn’t indicate that current prices are promoting the record demand we need.

“Looking at export prices versus last season, we are well over where we were this time last year, when the record export program for 2025-26 was being aggressively priced.

“Alternative feedgrain parities don’t look supportive of a big price premium versus last season, and it is therefore unlikely that we are pricing aggressively enough to ensure a record demand profile which we need to move the crop.”

Sorghum exports dived in September, and are expected to continue the downtrend as stocks run down with the ending of the bulk-shipment program.

“We expect minor volumes to leak out over the next few months, with demand present only for smalls at sizable price premiums.”

Mr Roache said recent and continuing rains in southern and Central Queensland and northern New South Wales have helped improve new-crop prospects, with production of a similar size to the previous year now expected.

“For new crop, we expect strong competition on price and volume from Brazil, after their first export year saw the quality and flows very well received.”

FEED	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Apr-Jun	Jly	Aug	Sep	Tonnes
Cambodia	296	0	0	0	0	0	296
China	1535508	2385651	2255384	505766	372055	286652	7341017
Indonesia	0	127	0	0	0	217	344
Japan	10751	0	79914	65149	43469	0	199282
Kuwait	41335	21417	0	0	0	0	62752
Malaysia	552	511	946	172	182	184	2546
Mexico	0	33000	0	0	0	0	33000
New Caledonia	196	719	466	422	488	197	2489
New Zealand	0	6600	0	0	0	0	6600
Oman	0	48181	0	0	0	0	48181
Pakistan	0	663	2998	303	0	131	4095
Papua New Guinea	100	25	0	0	0	75	200
Philippines	5278	2650	3528	490	680	1500	14126
Qatar	0	44100	0	0	0	0	44100
Saudi Arabia	342995	351227	19000	0	0	0	713222
South Korea	4473	2770	3447	1421	1118	1735	14965
Sri Lanka	21	0	0	0	14	0	35
Taiwan	5299	6263	6459	1547	1723	1275	22565
Thailand	8060	7834	60949	2742	2674	3175	85435
UAE	41368	103824	41000	0	0	0	186192
Vietnam	15662	15978	6877	5178	2578	3038	49311
Yemen	0	103046	107470	0	0	0	210516
TOTAL	2011894	3134586	2588438	583190.9	424979.99	298179	9041268

Table 1: Australian feed barley exports for the 12 months to September 2026. Source: ABS

MALTING	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Apr-Jun	Jly	Aug	Sep	Tonnes
Cambodia	0	0	294	0	0	0	294
China	169864	894086	464757	103909	177987	80554	1891157
Ecuador	0	13250	7350	7500	0	0	28100
Japan	28591	6240	26574	20858	0	20	82283
Mexico	63000	0	30270	0	0	0	93270
New Zealand	193	0	0	0	0	0	193
Pakistan	0	0	758	0	0	0	758
Peru	0	40592	21000	19092	0	0	80684
Philippines	3032	2261	3045	1368	1259	0	10964
Singapore	8163	10065	12134	1643	3440	2072	37517
South Korea	16889	14513	13617	400	420	0	45838
Thailand	0	1789	5026	2216	0	0	9032
Vietnam	25951	43402	42774	33866	5716	5334	157044
TOTAL	315684	1026198	627599	190852	188821	87980	2437134

Table 2: Australian malting barley exports for the 12 months to September 2026. Source: ABS

SORGHUM	Oct-Dec	Jan-Mar	Apr-Jun	Jly	Aug	Sep	Tonnes
Bahrain	25	0	0	0	0	0	25
China	117705	549376	956049	305618	214060	103839	2246647
Japan	128	86	85	0	0	43	341
Philippines	6982	6094	7479	525	850	1870	23800
Saudi Arabia	129	0	0	51	0	125	306
South Korea	0	146	220	50	0	0	416
Taiwan	7973	9904	11306	1713	3195	2887	36978
Vietnam	99	200	249	0	100	176	825
TOTAL	133041	565805	975388	307958	218205	108940	2309337

Table 3: Australian sorghum exports for the 12 months to September 2026. Source: ABS

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Australia details year’s sorghum, record barley shipments

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