Alberta Barley Chair, Dave Bishop, says it's cause for concern whenever you loose an export market.
Saudi Arabia is still not taking shipments of Canadian wheat and barley following a diplomatic dispute last August.
Canada used to export roughly 135,000 tonnes of barley to Saudi Arabia each year.
On the bright side, Bishop says they've seen increased demand for our barley because of a tight global supply.
"It wasn't a big hit to us as far as the economic impact to most farmers. Other markets had opened up, China's bought a lot more barley, and the other countries around Saudi Arabia are picking up some of that too."
He says Canada's biggest competitor in the barley market is Australia which has been dealing with drought issues for the past couple years, in turn helping Canadian prices and driving demand.
Bishop says they hope the issue with Saudi Arabia will rectify itself in the near future.
Source : Discoverairdrie