Barley has featured heavily in this quarter’s hectic shipment program, with ports including Esperance in WA loading many cargoes. Photo: George Cook, Southern Ports

AUSTRALIA exported 870,566 tonnes of feed barley, 59,280t of malting barley and 15,656t of sorghum in February, according to the latest export data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Total malting and feed barley exports for February totalled 929,846t, up 7 per cent from 872,891t shipped in January.

Saudi Arabia purchased 501,871t of feed barley, its biggest monthly tonnage of Australian barley in years, while Vietnam was the biggest market for malting barley.

Japan was the second-biggest buyer in both barley segments.

China was the biggest buyer of sorghum shipped in February, with total sorghum shipments down 71pc from the January figure.

Market Check head of strategy Nick Crundall said the February barley numbers have extended the streak of strong volumes in the season to date.

“Saudi is proving to be our baseline export destination, importing a whopping 500,000t of feed for the month,” Mr Crundall said.

“Japan and Thailand also took some volume which helped boost exports, as global barley importers take advantage of our cheap supply to increase their inventories.

“The March shipping stem is looking very healthy as well, with around one million tonnes expected to leave our shores and help clear the decks of 2020-21 supplies.”

While sorghum shipments in February in February were modest, Mr Crundall said an upswing can be expected from here on in as new-crop tonnage enables bulk exports.

Table 1: Australian exports of malting barley in December 2020 and January and February 2021. Source: ABS

Table 2: Australian exports of feed barley in December 2020 and January and February 2021. Source: ABS

Table 3: Australian exports of sorghum in December 2020 and January and February 2021. Source: ABS