Farmers Have To Wait For Malt Prices

[John]

Farmers will have to wait until harvest to find out malting barley prices, the boss of Britain's biggest maltster has said.

David Wilkes, chief executive of Greencore Malt, said volatile markets meant he was unable to predict payment terms.

He told Farm Journal: "There will be a premium - there always will. But it is difficult to say what it will be. Increasingly malting barley prices are determined by EU and world markets. At the moment we do not know what way the market will go so it is difficult to determine prices.

"Once we get closer to harvest and see what the crops are like the premium will then be determined."?

Mr Wilkes was speaking as Greencore Malt officially unveiled a multimillion-pound investment at its maltings in Buckie's March Road, where it has installed new drying equipment and extra steep tanks to take production capacity from 40,000 tonnes a year to 59,000.

The investment was announced in 2007 at a time when Scotland's distillers were increasing production to cope with soaring global demand.

Two years on, the picture for distilling is not so rosy, with production and demand for malt both down.

Mr Wilkes accepted the situation was different, but said the investment was still justified. "The expansion we have put in place is proportionate. It is not a huge expansion,"? he added.

"Yes, there is some uncertainty about distilling and obviously we do not know the final outcome. But the recession will end at some point and demand for whisky will increase again, whether that is from India or China. Long term we remain confident."?

The new facilities were officially opened by NFU Scotland president Jim McLaren who welcomed the investment as it injected confidence into sector that had suffered because of the uncertainty about prices. He called on distillers to ensure that all parts of the supply chain were profitable.

Mr McLaren added: "Farmers, when they make a profit, are also quick to invest in their business but we would look to the malting industry to work with growers to help build confidence in the future."?

Mr McLaren also spoke about conflicting government policies. While one arm of government viewed the drinks industry as bad for health, the food and drink policy had ambitious plans to grow the sector from £7.5billion to £10billion a year. Whisky played a key role in that.

Mr McLaren also voiced concerns about the plans by some distillers to burn by-products from the malting process, including distillers' dark grains. That could well lead to shortages of products traditionally used as cattle feeds, he warned.

Greencore employs nine staff at Buckie. It also has another maltings at Glenesk, near Montrose.

John

Source: Press & Journal