„Malting barley is significantly undervalued“ summarizes Michael Fleischer, CEO of the Hamburg/Germany based trading house Grainexx, the current market conditions in Fridays issue of agricultural journal “Agrarzeitung”. While others grain prices have reached new heights in recent months, malting barley has stayed at comparatively moderate price levels. Reasons can be seen in the long positions of the trade, sluggish malt and beer sales in domestic markets and not fully utilized malting capacities. He estimates that prices will recover as soon as demand of breweries for the new crop comes back. Because of nearly unchanged malting barley acreages in Europe with a tight malting barley supply, the danger of supply shortages in case of a below-average crop is clearly given. He “does not understand brewers, who do not take advantage of currently weak prices to cover further needs”, Fleischer is quoted.