Gleadell's managing director David Sheppard discusses the barley market, which shows unprecidented prices for feed barley.

Feed barley is trading at, or above, feed wheat due to interest from Saudi Arabia and Jordan.  This business is sporadic and reliant on 60,000mt vessels normally shipped from Rotterdam, Hamburg or Dunkirk if the origin is EU. In the Black Sea, feed barley is quoted at $60 above Russian milling wheat – which is unprecedented and unsustainable.

At current parities, any consumer who does not have to use feed barley will be knocking it out of their rations, and this may even include big importers such as Jordan. A brief historical analysis tells us that feed barley prices at or above feed wheat levels do not last long and may well be a selling opportunity for farmers with feed barley to sell.