Cereal growers are on the verge of a brave new world as the Chinese market is now open to exports of barley.

The Chinese this year, are looking to import seven million tonnes of barley and the UK could have as much as 150,000 tonnes worth £20 million available.

All the necessary permissions are now in place to give the UK access to mainland China which is a massive and growing market.

Though the harvest has not yet finished there will be a surplus which could find a ready home in the Far East as China requires grain from assured sources.

AHDB Head of Crops Export Trade Development, Rob Burns said: “Our export team worked for years to gain access to the market and now we have opened the doors, it is a market that can be developed.”

Demand for barley in China has been growing fuelled by a large and fast-growing beer market while domestic production has, at the same time, been in decline.

GTAS and TASCC have been approved by the Chinese as meeting their requirements for exporters and elevators and therefore only barley handled by those organisations are permitted to be exported to China.

The latest list of registered UK exporters to China can be found here.