Canadian Wheat Board Malt Barley Prices: Offerings and PROs

 
 
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 Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) offering prices for domestic malt barley
The primary buyers of western Canadian malt barley from the Canadian Wheat Board are Canada, the U.S. and China. The Canadian Wheat Board tries to charge a different price to each buyer, subject to competitive conditions.

Each day the CWB releases offering prices to Canadian buyers/users of malt barley. The offering price reflects the price at which the CWB will sell malt barley to domestic maltsters who have indicated that they will be selling their malt to Canadian brewers (see tables below).

CWB prices to importers of malt barley
The prices at which the CWB is willing to sell to other countries or to maltsters who are selling malt outside Canada are not publicly available. The Canadian industry is usually charged the highest price, followed by the U.S., and other countries such as China.

The primary buyers of malt barley, from the CWB, are:

('000 tonnes)
CanadaUnited StatesChina
1999-001,402585
2000-011,051554
2001-021,150452
2002-03566172
2003-04961511
2004-05839140
2005-0674967
2006-07975282
2007-08994689
2008-091005687
2009-10675539
Source: Canadian Wheat Board Annual Reports

CWB payments to farmers
Under the single desk selling system farmers cannot sell directly to the maltster. All malt barley must be sold through the CWB into the pool account. The CWB estimates these total returns through its Pool Return Outlook (PRO). During the year, farmers receive an initial payment (sometimes adjusted upwards) and, in most years, a final payment. The sum of the payments is the total pooled return, which reflects the blended price at which malt barley was sold by the CWB to all the markets.

CWB weekly offering prices
The graphs below show weekly CWB Offering prices, CWB PROs, and CWB Initial prices. The difference between offering prices and PROs is apparent. The graphs show that because the offering price to domestic purchasers is considerably greater than the PRO, export prices must be considerably lower.

The graph below shows CWB offerings, 2008/09 CWB PROs, 2009/10 CWB PROs, 2008/09 CWB Payments and 2009/10 CWB Payments.


 
 
 
 
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This document is maintained by Mary Mah.
This information published to the web on February 23, 2005.
Last Reviewed/Revised on January 22, 2010.