Material Insights · Understanding the Material World

Barley: Trading

Tenders, not futures: how big buyers purchase barley

What this tab covers How and where it is bought and sold: who buys and sells, exchanges and benchmarks, contract types, the big trading houses and how prices are discovered.

Barley has no deep futures market. Most trade is physical, priced against wheat and maize futures plus a local basis. Big importers buy through public tenders, notably Saudi Arabia, the largest barley importer during the 2008 food crisis (Blas & Farchy, pdf p. 232); China has since overtaken it. Maltsters contract directly with growers for malting grades. The Big Five grain merchants, Cargill among them, long dominated exports: in 1974 they handled 90% of Canada's barley exports (Morgan, pdf p. 327). Morgan also recounts traders selling barley short before owning it (pdf p. 276).

Where it is bought (buyers)

  • China feed mills and maltsters (39.9% of world import value in 2024, Comtrade)
  • Saudi Arabia through GFSA tenders (9.6%), Iran, Turkey, Japan (3.6%)
  • Maltsters in Belgium and the Netherlands (5.1% and 6.3%) for malting barley
  • India: maltsters such as Soufflet and brewers' contract farming in Rajasthan

Where it is sold (sellers)

  • Australia (22.6% of world export value in 2023), France and the EU (20.7% France), Germany (9.4%)
  • Argentina (9.1%), Canada (8.3%), Romania (5.1%), plus Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan (Comtrade 2023)

Exchanges and benchmarks

VenueContractNotes
No liquid global futuresBarley is priced off wheat and maize futures (CBOT, Euronext) plus basisPhysical trade prices off tenders, PRA assessments and grain futures basis
NCDEX (India)Barley futures, Jaipur deliveryIndia listed contract; physical prices in Rajasthan mandis and maltster contracts set most trade

Contract types

  • Saudi GFSA and Jordan state tenders for feed barley (CFR)
  • Maltster production contracts with growers, with protein and germination specifications
  • FOB export cargoes under GAFTA standard contracts
  • Annual malt supply contracts between maltsters and brewers

Top trading houses

  • Viterra (Bunge)
  • Cargill
  • COFCO International
  • Louis Dreyfus
  • ADM
  • CBH Group
  • Soufflet (InVivo)

How prices are discovered

  • State tender results (Saudi GFSA)
  • Argus and S&P Global grain assessments
  • AHDB UK feed and malting barley prices
  • USDA average farm price ($5.46/bu in 2025/26)