Markets

Australia exports 472,935t barley, 50,115t Jan sorghum

Liz Wells March 14, 2023

T-Ports’ Tim Gurney inspects a barley crop prior to harvest at Urania on Yorke Peninsula with Fat Farmers founders Greg Hean, Scott Hoyle and Ben Wundersitz.

AUSTRALIA exported 417,215 tonnes of feed barley, 55,720t of malting barley and 50,115t of sorghum in January, according to the latest export data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

January’s feed barley exports represent a drop of 61 percent from the December total, with Saudi Arabia on 115,219t, Jordan on 91,280t and The Philippines on 56,332t the biggest customers.

Malting barley exports in January were up 154pc on the December total, with Mexico on 33,000t, South Korea on 11,027t and Singapore on 5536t the largest markets.

January sorghum exports rose 12pc from the December total, with Japan being the surprise volume customer on 31,564t, ahead of China on 17,223t and The Philippines on 904t.

Flexi Grain pool manager Sam Roache said while exports of feed barley to Middle East destinations and Japan fell away in January, an uptick was seen in shipments to The Philippines and Thailand.

“Demand in South-east Asia is slowly picking up due to the good relative value of barley into feed rations versus feed wheat and corn,” Mr Roache said.

“The reason for the overall drop in tonnage is not structural and is not a reflection of a sharp drop in demand for barley.

“The reality is that December was a big-volume month for barley and we often see a small month following a large one.”

Shipping stems for February and March point to barley shipments rebounding to 800,000t plus per month.

“That puts us well on track to hit our 8Mt export target.”

Mr Roache said feed barley’s lacklustre export margins versus wheat and other commodities have yet to harm its ability to hit export estimates, and China remains on the cards.

“The export margins will improve dramatically if we can return to the China markets in the near future.”

On that note, China appeared as the destination for 99t of January-shipped malting barley.

“While it is hardly going to move the market, it is hopefully a sign of things to come.”

Sorghum exports remained low in January to reflect very low stocks prior to new-crop.

“We see Japan has taken an unusually high share of the monthly exports, coming in above China, but with such a small overall month, there is no major take-away and China will very likely rise to the top again in February.”

The sorghum harvest in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales is well advanced, and new-crop shipments got going last month.

“We expect export volumes to rebound in the February figures before gathering more momentum into March and April.

“The sorghum market has all the makings for another large export program.”

FEED Nov Dec Jan Tonnes
Hong Kong 21 0 12 33
Iran 0 64305 0 64305
Japan 30570 178339 33000 241909
Jordan 62788 0 91280 154068
Kuwait 42199 41896 41526 125622
Malaysia 0 0 192 192
New Caledonia 394 605 266 1266
New Zealand 0 9113 0 9113
Oman 0 19269 0 19269
Papua New Guinea 50 50 0 100
Philippines 22 25937 56332 82291
Qatar 55125 60500 0 115625
Saudi Arabia 263606 534716 115219 913540
Singapore 4 0 0 4
South Korea 12654 34030 1050 47734
Taiwan 547 7350 1200 9097
Thailand 772 1248 51600 53619
UAE 52230 24474 76703
Vietnam 2130 30708 1063 33901
TOTAL 470880 1060295 417215 1948390

Table 1: Australian feed barley exports for November and December 2022 and January 2023. Source: ABS

MALTING Nov Dec Jan Tonnes
China 0 0 99 99
Ecuador 6000 0 0 6000
Mexico 30000 0 33000 63000
New Zealand 0 0 1193 1193
Peru 16985 0 0 16985
Philippines 1247 1660 650 3558
Singapore 4781 4883 5536 15200
South Africa 15000 15000 0 30000
South Korea 0 0 11027 11027
Thailand 865 0 897 1762
Vietnam 29743 436 3317 33497
TOTAL 104622 21979 55720 182321

Table 2: Australian malting barley exports for November and December 2022 and January 2023. Source: ABS

SORGHUM Nov Dec Jan Tonnes
China 100030 42785 17223 160038
Japan 0 0 31564 31564
New Caledonia 198 0 0 198
Philippines 1068 1144 904 3116
South Korea 0 65 50 115
Taiwan 4701 874 374 5949
Vietnam 201 0 0 201
Taiwan 518 0 0 518
TOTAL 106716 44868 50115 201699

Table 3: Australian sorghum exports for November and December 2022 and January 2023. Source: ABS

 

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