British feed barley loading for export to Kuwait

LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - A cargo of 30,000 tonnes of British feed barley is being loaded in northeast England for shipment to Kuwait, reflecting an increasing trend towards shipping the grain outside the European Union, the head of a British grain marketer said on Tuesday.

Gary Bright, managing director of GrainCo, said that export opportunities to the Middle East and North Africa had opened up, with traditional supplier France selling significant volumes of barley to China.

"I think at the moment the UK has been quite active in selling barley to Middle East destinations; Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia," Bright said.

The main customers for British barley are normally within the EU and include Germany, Spain, Portugal and Ireland (Other OTC: IRLD - news) .

"Exports of barley to other EU countries from the UK has been less than normal because most people in Europe had relatively good crops themselves," Bright said.

GrainCo is the largest farmer-owned grain marketing business in the north of England and Scotland.

Bright said that the barley was being loaded at the company's facility in South Shields, northeast England.

"We've had this export facility for 32 years and I'm pretty confident this is the first time we've loaded a boat to go to Kuwait," he said.

Bright said the company was also loading a cargo of 7,000 tonnes of British rapeseed for export to Turkey at Blyth (NYSE: BTH - news) , also in northeast England.

He noted Turkey's zero-tolerance policy towards genetically modified rapeseed had created opportunities for British exporters.

Britain exported rapeseed to Turkey for the first time early this year.

(Reporting by Nigel Hunt; Editing by David Goodman)