More wheat was milled by UK millers and more barley was used by UK brewers, distillers and maltsters in 2007/08.

Millers’ Usage

The amount of wheat used by millers last season reached a high of nearly 6Mt (Table 1). This was 0.4Mt or 7% higher than in ‘06/07. However, while home-grown wheat used for milling showed only a slight increase of 41,000t on the previous season, significantly more wheat was imported in ‘07/08 (see pages 4,5 for more trade details). A total of 1.2Mt of imported wheat was used by millers last season, which was 0.34Mt up on ‘06/07 and the highest amount since 1993/94. This is a reflection of the lower ’07 UK wheat crop which was of just an average quality and corresponds with the higher intake of North American and German wheat, which tend to be of higher quality.

The rain-delayed ’08 UK harvest has raised quality concern for this year’s crop as this may have again implication on the availability of bread wheat this season.

Maltsters’ Usage

Total barley usage by maltsters, brewers and distillers rose by 34,000t (2%) to 1.7Mt in ‘07/08 despite tight availability. Maltsters used a total of 1.66Mt of barley, up 1%. While this indicates 'growth' in the UK malting barley industry, overall barley usage continues to remain well below the 1.9Mt used in most of the past seasons since the mid-1990s.

More barley has also been used as a straight for brewing and distilling, which rose to a high of 80,800t in '07/08, compared to 66,500t in '06/07 and 60,600t in '05/06. Brewers, distillers and maltsters used also again slightly more wheat last season, at 0.64Mt. This can be partly attributed to strong growth in the demand for spirit (Graph 1).

Early quality samples from the ' 08 barley harvest are encouraging. This and the fact that farmers have planted more barley for harvest '08 would suggest sufficient malting barley availability in '08/09.

See www.defra.gov.uk for full datasets on millers’ and maltsters’ grain usage.