Markets

Australian Apr barley exports drop, sorghum jumps 73pc

Liz Wells June 19, 2023

This crop of A88 Pioneer sorghum harvested last month at Blackville on the Liverpool Plains of NSW won the Premer shield for George Duddy, Hudson Farms, and farm manager Steve Avard. It yielded 6.9-7t/ha across 920ha. Photo: Pioneer Seeds

AUSTRALIA exported 593,671 tonnes of barley and 400,170t of sorghum in April, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The barley figure comprises 470,448t of feed and 123,223t of malting, with the feed total being down 26 percent from the 635,917t shipped in March, and malting total down 12pc for the month.

Vietnam on 122,438t, Japan on 91,644t and Thailand on 91,570t were the volume destinations for feed barley, with Mexico on 99,000t followed by Japan on 20,612t the largest malting markets.

Sorghum exports jumped 73pc for the month from the 231,216t shipped in March to reflect the arrival of new-crop volume, with around three-quarters of it leaving Brisbane in bulk bound for China.

The sorghum harvest is going at full pace in Central Queensland, and is over in New South Wales and southern Qld.

In its Australian Crop Report released on June 6, ABARES forecast the Qld crop now being harvest at 1.69 million tonnes (Mt) over 480,000ha, while the NSW crop is estimated at 760,000t from 190,000ha.

FEED Feb Mar Apr Tonnes
Hong Kong 12 0 0 12
Italy 0 0 6 6
Japan 149205 35338 91644 276187
Jordan 82500 13500 0 96000
Kuwait 76683 28592 50235 155510
Macau 0 0 5 5
Malaysia 0 163 0 163
New Caledonia 303 641 0 944
Oman 0 20892 20704 41596
Papua New Guinea 0 0 50 50
Philippines 79278 59720 1016 140014
Qatar 0 52500 0 52500
Saudi Arabia 277500 285171 42549 605219
Singapore 2 2 2 7
South Korea 677 1082 510 2270
Taiwan 1107 1489 492 3089
Thailand 129379 19787 91570 240736
UAE 5035 34680 49226 88941
Vietnam 109423 82358 122438 314220
TOTAL 911105 635917 470448 2017470

Table 1: Australian feed barley exports for February, March and April 2023. Source: ABS

MALTING Feb Mar Apr Tonnes
Ecuador 0 6000 0 6000
Japan 0 21000 20612 41612
Mexico 30000 31733 99000 160733
New Zealand 1596 0 0 1596
Peru 0 16943 0 16943
Philippines 1070 0 286 1356
Singapore 2758 880 2595 6232
South Africa 0 15000 0 15000
South Korea 660 13263 0 13923
Thailand 440 1826 0 2265
Vietnam 4756 32615 731 38102
TOTAL 41278 139260 123223 303761

Table 2: Australian malting barley exports for February, March and April 2023. Source: ABS

SORGHUM Feb Mar Apr Tonnes
China 49552 209147 339433 598132
Japan 65 14360 24297 38722
Kenya 0 0 31050 31050
New Zealand 0 2 0 2
Philippines 1099 3253 881 5233
South Korea 0 0 48 48
Taiwan 2301 4454 4387 11142
Vietnam 100  0 74 174
TOTAL 53116 231216 400170 684502

Table 3: Australian sorghum exports for February, March and April 2023. Source: ABS

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