China’s barley imports to increase slightly in the 2025/26 marketing year

In the 2025/26 marketing year, barley production in China is expected to rise to 2.3 million tons, compared to 2 million tons in the previous season. At the same time, imports of the grain are projected to increase from 10.25 million tons to 10.5 million tons. Of the total supply, about 8.7 million tons will be feed barley and 4.2 million tons will be food barley. This was reported by Ding Yuling, General Director of the Chinese company Beijing Lianghai Zhichuang Technology Co., Ltd. and founder of the website Gugejiujiu, during the international conference Chinese Grains & Oils Congress 2026 held on March 5 in Shanghai.

According to the expert, imports of feed barley remain significant every year, although fluctuations between seasons can be substantial. This is mainly due to the fact that imported feed barley is often used as a substitute for domestically produced corn.

When prices for Chinese corn increase, feed industry enterprises consider using barley more actively, which also leads to noticeable fluctuations in feed barley prices.

The expert noted that traditional exporters of barley to China include Australia, Canada, France, Argentina and Ukraine. In recent years, the list of new exporting countries has expanded to include Denmark, the United Kingdom, Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, the United States and Uruguay.

At the same time, barley from Kazakhstan is purchased by Chinese importers at the lowest price among major suppliers. In 2025, the average price reached $182.81 per ton, while Kazakhstan’s share in total imports was only about 3.3%. For comparison, Australian barley, which accounts for more than 56% of China’s total imports, was priced at $261.35 per ton, while Canadian barley (about 15% of imports) cost $279.42. Russian barley was imported at an average price of $214.24 per ton, with a share of about 5% of total imports.

Ding Yuling also noted that barley exported to China from Australia and Canada mainly includes feed and malting barley and is generally of high quality. In contrast, barley supplied from Russia and Kazakhstan is mostly feed barley and its quality is somewhat lower.

The expert added that there are a number of issues in barley trade with Russia and Kazakhstan. For Russia, the main obstacles are limited transport capacity and cross-border payment issues, while Kazakhstan faces constraints related to logistics that limit its ability to fully meet market demand.

At the same time, supplies of Kazakh barley to the Chinese market are steadily increasing. If in 2020 they amounted to about 140 thousand tons, by the end of 2025 they exceeded 350 thousand tons.