Barley processing in Europe

Barley is a crop that is actively produced all over the world, and in particular in Europe.

The EU countries really have excellent own production of this crop – as of 2019, 60 million tons of barley were produced in Europe and the UK, and most of the crop was exported to other countries.

In Europe, the leaders in the cultivation of this crop are Germany, France, Romania and Belgium. And, which is logical, given such high yields in Europe, the EU countries are no less actively engaged in the processing of barley. At the same time, only high-quality equipment is suitable for this process, which is not available in all countries.

What you need to know about barley processing

The “covid” year 2020 made its own adjustments to the cultivation of all crops, because it was in 2020 that the yield significantly decreased in all countries. The reason for this, by the way, is not only the coronavirus, but also the unprecedented drought faced by farmers around the world. As a result, even on favorable soils, the plants did not yield so high yields, which is why the EU countries were forced to export barley from other countries – in particular, in 2020, exports from Ukraine increased 2.7 times. But at the same time, the EU countries preferred to deal with processing on their equipment, which allows you to get not only crude unrefined oil of the first cold pressing, but also other products that are no less important for human activities. We are talking, of course, about cereals, cereals, whole grain flour, as well as malt, which is used both for culinary purposes and for animal feed. Europe has its own high-quality technologies for this process, as well as special equipment that allows you to clean seeds, remove fungus from the surface of the kernel, and carry out peeling.

Of course, there are peculiarities of this process – in particular, only high-quality grain, which contains a lot of protein, can be processed, and the required level of extraction, fullness, germination and enzymatic activity is fixed. However, if the crop does not meet these requirements, it can still be sold, because it will be used as feed for farm animals.

In which EU countries barley is processed

Statistics show that this crop is most often produced in Germany. Also, French, Spanish and British producers are engaged in this process, because it is in these countries that the main yield of barley is recorded. By the way, Australian and Canadian enterprises, which are also considered the leaders in the cultivation of barley in the world, are engaged in the processing of this crop.

It should be understood that barley, as a rule, is not the main crop for processing, because this process is more often applied to corn, which is more preferable for farmers.

Profitability

At the moment, the existing barley processing plants fully satisfy the needs in this process, therefore, factories in other countries are now rarely opened. The reason for this is the expensive technology, which is unlikely to pay off even with large volumes of processing. It is for this reason that Ukrainian farmers send their local crops to Europe for processing, or use the capacities available in the country for this process.