Farmers urged to seek alternatives to barley production

The winter grain planting season was well underway in the Western Cape regions during the third week of April. However, barley producers in these provinces were cautioned to be proactive and seriously consider producing alternative crops such as canola or wheat.

Richard Krige, Grain SA vice chairperson, said the national lockdown to contain the coronavirus disease (COVID19) pandemic in South Africa, and the consequent ban on the sale of alcohol, were expected to severely impact the demand for malting barley in the 2020 production season.

“If the measures pertaining to the sale of alcohol are not lifted by the end of the [third week of April], I expect Anheuser-Busch InBev [AB InBev], to call a force majeure and drastically cut barley purchases in South Africa,” he said.

AB InBev acquired SABMiller in 2016, and it had been expected that the company would procure 475 000t of barley this year.

Southern Cape, the planting of pasture crops and canola had started, while producers in the Caledon area started planting barley and wheat.

Krige said planting conditions in the Southern Cape were far from ideal and considerably more rain was needed. Widespread rainfall did occur in many parts of the Western Cape, and planting had commenced across the province.

The optimum planting window was from the first week in April until May.

“The challenge is for producers in the [southern parts] to get the seed into the ground as soon as possible, with or without rain,” Krige explained.

Winter grain producers suffered significant losses due to drought during the 2019/2020 season, and were left with very large carry-over debts. Krige expressed concern about these producers, and said many could be forced out of the industry if faced with another drought this year. – Annelie Coleman