Closing pubs and restaurants and canceling sporting events and festivals like Germany’s Oktoberfest has hurt demand for malt used to make beer and whisky, reports Yahoo Finance.
Brewers and malt producers have shuttered or scaled down plants, just as European barley stockpiles are set to hit a decade-high. That means farms may have to offload crops more cheaply for animal feed.
About a sixth of the world’s barley is used in malt, though the share is higher in regions with intensive beer and whiskey sectors. Stockpiles in the European Union, the largest grower, will jump 14% to 6.6 million tons next season, U.S. government data show, and French malting barley prices recently hit the lowest since at least 2015.
