IFA says Greencore’s malting barley harvest price is opportunistic

A HARVEST price of €120 per tonne for malting barley was announced yesterday by Greencore Malt, but the Irish Farmers Association described it as opportunistic and below the cost of production.

Greencore Malt said the price had been announced following several meetings on both potential long-term pricing models and 2009 crop price levels between the company and grower representatives since January

“This represents a premium of more than 25% for Irish malting barley over current European prices, and is likely to represent more than 30% premium over Irish feed barley prices,” it said.