AUSTRALIAN barley exports have dwindled to 37,308 tonnes in September, down from 169,046t in August, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

This reflects the usual seasonal rundown on stocks ahead of the new-crop harvest, and global interest in cheaper northern-hemisphere barley.

September shipments were made up of 25,032t of feed barley and 12,276t of malting, compared with 162,722t of malting barley but just 6324t of feed barley in August.

The continued absence of China from Australia’s list of customers for feed barley reflects its anti-dumping investigation into historic pricing of Australian feed barley.

In sorghum, September shipments at 11,048t were almost half the 21,850t exported in August.

The drop reflecting limited export availability of sorghum in the face of a continuing feedgrain deficit in growing areas as caused by eastern Australia’s drought.

Table 1: ABS Australian malting barley export data for July, August and September 2019.

Table 2: ABS Australian feed barley export data for July, August and September 2019.

Table 3: ABS Australian sorghum export data for July, August and September 2019.