The gross harvest of barley in Ukraine will be 1.3 million tons.

This was reported by the consultant of the company Agritel International Victoria Blazhko. According to Agritel forecasts, barley production growth in the marketing year 2019-2020 is expected in seven major exporting countries - Russia, the EU, Australia, Ukraine, Argentina, Canada and Kazakhstan.

It is predicted that their total barley crop will be 10 million tons more than last year. An increase in market supply is likely to result in a decrease in grain prices.

According to Victoria Blazhko, in the 2018-2019 marketing year, the situation was the opposite. In key exporting countries, a cumulative decrease in barley harvest by 7 million tons was recorded compared to the 2017-2018 season. For example, Ukraine harvested 7.6 million tons of grain.

This led to a rapid increase in crop prices in the first half of the 2018-2019 season. In October-November 2018, Ukrainian farmers sold barley at a price of 220-225 dollars / ton CPT-Odessa. The average price for the season was $ 197 / ton, compared to $ 172 / ton in 2017-2018 MY.

Too high prices for barley forced major importers - Saudi Arabia and China to temporarily stop the purchase of this grain. As a result of a drop in buyers' interest, in the second half of the last agricultural season, prices rapidly went down.

Therefore, Agritel International notes that the determining factor in the further price dynamics of the global barley market should be precisely the demand from these countries.

The latter, according to rumors, has significantly intensified in the Ukrainian direction, after the conclusion of an agreement on the purchase of more than 1 million tons of barley. It was this contract that probably caused the July rise in barley prices in the first half of July 2019.