Move Over China as Australia Finds New Home for Barley in Saudi
- Surge in global crop prices has opened opportunities for sales
- Sales to Thailand and Vietnam increased, with hopes for India
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Australian barley farmers have moved on, big time. Facing massive Chinese tariffs and an urgent need to ship a bumper harvest, they’re piling into one of the world’s mega markets for the grain -- Saudi Arabia.
For the first time in about five years, Australia has meaningfully broken into the Saudi market, beating usually fierce competition from other suppliers, and there are signs that sales will continue at least until the middle of the year, according to Andrew Whitelaw, an agricultural analyst at Thomas Elder Markets.