The 24-page document was released in early September by the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre.
“This report has been prepared during a tumultuous time for the Australian barley industry,” the introduction reads.
The “tumultuous time” refers to the 73.6 per cent dumping and 6.8 per cent subsidy margins imposed on Australian barley by Chinese authorities in May, and the suspension of imports from Perth-based CBH Group, one of Australia’s biggest barley producers.
AEGIC barley markets manager Mary Raynes was a primary author on the report and said it was important barley growers reduced their reliance on a single dominant buyer.
“We are recommending that the Australian industry, supported by government, should identify alternative market opportunities,” Ms Raynes said.
Potential markets for feed barley include regional neighbours in South-East Asia, alongside Middle Eastern and North African countries.
Nations with higher pig and poultry populations were favoured by the report.
Vietnam and India were recommended as markets for malted barley because of their rising beer consumption rates and low tonnage of domestic malting barley crop.
While advising a move away from China, Ms Raynes also emphasised the importance of not exiting the world’s most populated country completely.
“China is by far the largest importer of malting barley globally and will remain so towards 2030,” she said.
“There are strong mutual benefits to continued engagement with China.
“Chinese barley users will be more likely to quickly start buying Australian barley — particularly malting barley — again if tariffs are lifted.”
This behaviour she attributed to Australian barley’s reputation in the country as a quality crop well suited to Chinese requirements.
The fire has also been put under the Federal Government and industry stakeholders to start making in-roads into other international markets for the cereal crop.
The creation of new markets was “increasingly important long-term” according to the report, “particularly if barley produce is greater than six million metric tonnes per annum”.
The Barley 2030: Anticipated trends in global consumption report has four primary authors: Mary Raynes, Barry Cox, Peter White and Ross Kingwell.
View the report here: https://www.aegic.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AEGIC_Barley-2030_LR.pdf
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