The barley market remains in high demand amid low supply. We can expect further market activation after January 15 and price growth.

This was discussed on January 9 during a weekly briefing organized by the analytical center of the First Ukrainian Agricultural Cooperative (FUAC) created within the UAC.

"As of January, 150,000-160,000 tons of Ukrainian barley has already been contracted, with many deals in Spain and Italy, and there are contracts for deliveries to China. Looking at the feed grains group, barley is the most affordable grain now, which attracts importers. We can expect that Ukraine will export at least 150,000-160,000 tons in January, and barley supplies to foreign markets may reach 200,000 tons. Even in the pre-war period, Ukraine did not have so many sales in January. High demand for barley can be expected in February as well," FUAC analysts said.

At the same time, barley stocks in Ukraine are sufficient for active trade. As of the beginning of January, barley stocks amounted to 3.5-3.6 mln tons. The predicted stocks as of February 1 are 3.2 million tons.

"Prices are at the level of USD145-150 per ton on CPT Odesa. Processors were tentatively quoting 4,400-4,700 UAH/t, but no one is actually selling at such low prices. We can expect prices to reach 5,000-5,200 UAH/t by the end of the week. In the future, given the rise of the dollar, prices may reach 6,100 UAH/t," FUAC added.

The EU will intensify purchases after January 15, and will contract barley supplies for February and March - during this period, the market can be expected to grow, and barley prices will obviously rise on demand.