A winter without severe frost and favourable sowing conditions across Europe have sharply reduced malting premiums from €56 at the end of last year to currently €35.
"With perfect drilling conditions being reported widely across the continent, it is expected that they will experience further downward pressure on premiums," says Matthias Wree, Executive Director at Evergrain, a trading house specialized in malting barley which is 100% owned by Munich-based BayWa AG. Winter barley crop in France"appears to have done well, with hardly any winterkill reported", reports Wree.
A comparatively low demand for malting barley in contrast to a firm demand for feed barley has even more helped to reduce the spread in prices between spring and winter barley.
Additional pressure comes from North America, where brewers reduced contracted acreage for malting barley because of abundant supply from former crops.
