Exports Make Good Start Despite Stop-Start Harvest

Although it is stop-start for the UK harvest so far, our 2009-10 export campaign is very much in start mode as the first ships leave UK coast ports with new crop barley, saysDavid Sheppard, managing director of Gleadell Agriculture.

For example, we have just loaded 3,108mt of feed barley onto MV Arklow Surf (pictured above), bound for Ireland, at our Immingham import/export facility.

It seems likely that the UK will produce its biggest exportable surplus of barley for over ten years – maybe as much as 2 mln/t – so a strong export programme now will give growers an alternative to looking at intervention later in the season.

And as the wheat harvest gets under way, we also expect to load our first new crop wheat export ship next week, Mr Sheppard added.