Australian Bureau of Statistics data has confirmed China can consume vast quantities of Australian feed barley in the right season but that the malt market is more consistent.
The Australian barley industry is currently assessing its options in regards to exports to China following the welcome news China would scrap its 80.5 per cent tariffs on Australian barley.
With shipping slots still booked up it is expected it will be a couple of months before shipments to China resume, with industry insiders expecting it is likely to be malt that leads the charge.
Looking back to the period from 2013 to 2020 prior to the tariffs being imposed malt and feed both were the larger export four times apiece.
However, malt volumes only once dipped below a million tonnes, in 2020 which had some impact from the tariffs being announced in May and even then registered 975,000 tonnes.
On the other hand, feed exports have soared higher than malt, peaking at a whopping 3.71 million tonnes in 2017, but have also had years where they have dipped substantially, such as in 2019, when there was just 142,000 tonnes of feed shipped.
Overall, the big years for the feed sector have it as marginally the larger slice of the pie, with 14.31 million tonnes out of 27.6m tonnes overall, or 51.8pc of total barley exports.
Malt exports came in at 13.29 million tonnes for the period, with 2017 also the biggest year, with 2.53 million tonnes.
Across the board, 2017 was the largest year for exports, with 6.53m tonnes, however, the volatility of the market was demonstrated with the 2019 data which had just 1.59m tonnes exported overall.
While demand for malt barley is relatively inelastic with many Chinese brewers having systems specifically designed for using Australian malt varieties, the feed sector is markedly different.
If there is cheap feed grain available elsewhere in the world, frequently corn from either the US or Brazil Chinese feeders are happy to use it and this can push demand for Australian feed barley down.
The ABS data was compiled by the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre.
Gregor Heard
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
