Cereal growers are on the verge of a brave new world as the Chinese market is now open to exports of barley.
The Chinese this year, are looking to important seven million tonnes of barley worth £20 million.
All the necessary permissions are now in place to give the UK access to mainland China which is a massive and growing market.
Though the harvest has not yet finished there will be a surplus which could find a ready home in the Far East as China requires grain from assured sources.
AHDB Head of Crops Export Trade Development, Rob Burns said: “Our export team worked for years to gain access to the market and now we have opened the doors, it is a market that can be developed.
“We are in a strong position as in previous years we have had about a million tonnes of barley available for export each year.”
Demand for barley in China has been growing fuelled by a large and fast-growing beer market while domestic production has, at the same time, been in decline.
GTAS and TASCC have been approved by the Chinese as meeting their requirements for exporters and elevators and therefore only barley handled by those organisation approved to GTAS Trading and Merchanting, GTAS Bulk Storage and Handling, GTAS Analysis and Testing and GTAS Supervision, Sampling and Weighing (and the TASCC equivalents) is permitted to be exported to China.
