Since last week in Moldova, barley price growth has accelerated. At the beginning of the current week, traders paid about 3.1 lei/kg for barley to farmers in the northern regions of the country, and 3.6 lei/kg (including VAT) in the southern regions.
This situation has occurred since the beginning of the 2025-26 marketing season. Thus, in August this year, the average price for barley exported from Moldova was 3.50 lei/kg, for wheat – 3.49 lei/kg.
The situation when barley price is comparable or even slightly higher than wheat price occurs at the world grain market not more often than once in six-seven seasons. Although traders noted the first signs of unusual revival of demand for barley in the Black Sea market two years ago, and it was stimulated by the growing demand for feed from livestock breeders in the Middle East.
As agro-marketing expert Yuri Rija notes in this regard, at the beginning of the current season, the impetus for the dynamic increase in barley prices was the large contracts concluded by Jordan for the purchase of barley at a price of 190 euros per ton. “Still, it is worth bearing in mind that the world wheat production exceeds barley production by an order of magnitude,” emphasizes the expert. – Moreover, in the current season, barley crops for the harvest-2025 in some countries – major grain producers in the Black Sea region – have been significantly reduced. At the same time, wheat production has increased almost everywhere this year. Some livestock buyers will at some point prefer barley, albeit slightly more expensive, to feed wheat in this situation.
Moldovan wheat exports in August amounted to 220.7 thousand tons (81% of external supplies of grain crops), barley – 43.1 thousand tons (almost 16%). Wheat from Moldova was exported by 37 companies to 12 countries. The largest buyers are Italy (47.6% of the physical volume of supplies), Romania (17.6%), Greece (15.4%), Switzerland (10.8%) and Lebanon (3.9%). Barley exports were, for all intents and purposes, more focused, with only 14 traders shipping to five countries. The bulk of this commodity was shipped to Cyprus (42.7% of the physical volume), Lebanon (14.4%), UAE (14%), Turkey (12.25%) and Italy (12.14%).
