After a very cold and rainy spring, weather continued being cold and rainy most of June and 1st half July in our Baltic region. This was a situation 
which at least from my chair was of some concern, would it be a late harvest, would we see fusarium problems, could we have germination issues etc.
Status today at the end of August is, crop in Poland caused major challenges, the winter barley ended up with 80% mouldy kernels due late rain and therefore not useable as malting barley, spring barley in Poland is of a somewhat mixed quality, overall healthy but in certain areas with very low screenings which also will take away quantities as malting barley, all this will lead to imports of quality barley from Denmark and Sweden during the season. Denmark, South Sweden and Lithuania have had good conditions and could start harvesting mid-August. In all 3 areas we see a good quality crop, nice looking barley, good scree-nings, 10-11% protein overall with regional differences as usual, and so fare fusarium does not seem to be a pro-blem ( To be confirmed when we start malting of crop 2020 ).
Read the whole report: Viking Malt Sourcing News Letter 2 – 2020
Jacob Andersen, VP Group Sourcing & Procurement