Australia: Prices firm on southern dry

values have eased. Accumulation of everything bar canola remains thin in the opening weeks of the shipping year, with traders appearing reluctant to take positions as consumers chip away on coverage for coming months. Table 1: Indicative prices in Australian dollars per tonne Barley is being harvested in volume this week from Central Qld to the NSW-Qld border after a week of hot and dry weather. With another week of maximum temperatures of 30 degrees Celsius or above forecast, many more growers are expected to start harvesting in coming days. Feedlots, poultry and pig farms are advancing coverage with new-crop grain, and with the chickpea market still in the doldrums, barley is shaping up as the cash sale of the 2025 harvest. Quality of barley harvested to date has been good, but one trader said test weights of early crops are around 68-69kg/hectolitre, below hopes for 72kg, but well above the BAR1 minimum of 62.5kg. “We just didn’t get that last rain to top things up,” the ...