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[Topics: business, malting barley, grain prices]

Scottish malting barley growers remain uncertain about what price they will get for the 2009 crop as grain buyers continue to delay naming a contract price, NFU Scotland has said.

Growers, due to start planting this year’s spring crop soon, had been left in “limbo”, it said, and called on grain buyers to use this week’s HGCA/MAGB malting barley conference to give producers a clear steer on the prices they could expect.

“As we wait for the trade to end this unacceptable impasse, farmers can use this uncertain time wisely by making sure they know the true costs involved in growing the crop,” NFUS’s John Picken said. All parts of the chain had to understand that there was no point in sowing the crop unless it could be marketed at a price that made a worthwhile return for the business, he said.