Barley

Plantings and production

Barley is mainly produced in the Western Cape. The barley plantings for the 2000/01 season are estimated at 77 690 ha, which is 24 010 ha less than the estimated plantings of 101 700 ha for 1999/2000. A total esti­mated crop of approximately 161 600 tons of barley is expected for the 2000/01 season, compared to the 90 800 tons produced the previous season.

The area planted, production and yields of barley from 1996/97 to 2000/01 are as follows:

Season: 1 October to 30 September  

* Preliminary

Consumption

Barley is used for the production of pearl barley and malt. Malt is used for brewing beer. Part of the South Afri­can barley crop is generally less suitable for malting purposes and is then used as animal feed. Local con­sumption of barley is estimated at approximately 250 000 tons per annum. The average per capita con­sump­tion of barley over the past 5 years is 5,5 kg/year.

Producer prices

The average producer prices of malting barley from 1995/96 to 1999/2000 are estimated to be as follows:

Marketing

Barley is different from most, if not all, the other commodities, as there is only one major barley buyer in South Africa, namely Southern Association Maltsters (SAM), which supplies its major shareholder, SA Breweries, with malted barley. This places the producers in a particularly vulnerable position.

The fact that SAM can, and has, imported barley that is subsidised by 40% by the EU, for instance, is not the bar­ley producers’ only trouble. The climate in the southern Cape, where most of the country’s barley is grown, has, of late, not been favourable for barley production. Until four years ago, South Africa produced an average of 250 000 tons of barley a year, about 90% of which was malting grade.

Imports

Over the past four years, the weather has caused wide variations in barley quality and yields. SAM was ob­liged to import barley to compensate for the shortfall.

Barley and malt imports from 1995/96 to 1999/2000 are as follows:

Sunflower seed

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