9-14 IAN Malt Barley Down

Beer drinkers…you’re cutting back. I guess congratulations are in order. Malt barley growers, that isn’t what you want to hear, is it? I’m David Sparks and we’ll talk about this next. I saw a horrible story regarding barley producers that said: “Things are so backlogged that there’s rumored to be 2009 malt barley still for sale with the 2010 crop just a couple months from being harvested. A farmer unable to sell his barley as malt will probably be forced to sell it as animal feed for about two-thirds the price.” I wanted to hear the story from an authority so I called up Idaho Barley Commission Administrator Kelly Olson and got a lot of information: “Contract prices were down in 2010 and that was a reflection of a number of factors including large carry-over crops from the previous year which put less pressure on the raw material procurement program this year as well as some downward pressure on domestic beer consumption. We saw decline of domestic beer consumption in 2009 of over 2% which is the first significant decline since 2003. That’s worrisome from a short term and long term perspective because that’s what drives malt barley contract prices in the State of Idaho.