As the main raw material of feed and beer industries, barley is grain product that can be grown easily in every climate conditions. Being the most produced grain product after wheat and rice, 65 % of barley is used as animal feed, 33 % of it as malt for beer, whiskey and biodiesel production and 2 % of it as human food in food industry. Barley is an important grain crop from graminae whose grains can be used as malt and feed. Besides being one of the most important crop plants in the prehistoric times, it is one of the economically important plants. It is known that it was cultured in the region called as Fertile Crescent covering today's Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, western Syria, western Iran, Iraq and southeastern Turkey approximately 10.500 years ago. The barley that was being planted in those times is a subspecies known as wild barley today and discovered in Turkey. Humans have been using this subspecies as an important nutritional source at least for 18.000-19.000 years. Humans bred barley in different regions of the world starting from Middle East 10.000 years ago to China 2.000 years ago and they got the barley we use today. Being grown in any soil that is not too dry or too wet, barley is a crop that is quite resistant to cold and hot. Ranking 4th after corn, wheat and rice among the grains in terms of the production amounts, barley is the second mostly grown grain after wheat in Turkey. Even though barley has been consumed as an important nutritional source by billions of people since the Neolithic period, it is mostly used in animal feed or beer production today. After its nutritional value was understood in Europe and America in 1980s, it entered to the food industry again. However, the place of barley in the food industry in some cultures such as Asia and Africa has not been changed since the ancient times. Besides, barley is cultivated in the Polar Regions and high mountainous regions on which wheat cannot be cultivated and used as a nutrient. Cultivated in the world today; 65 % of barley is used as animal feed, 33 % of it as malt for beer, whiskey and biodiesel production and 2 % of it as human food in food industry. In Turkey; 90% of the consumption is used as animal feed and the rest is used as malting in the beer industry and food industry. The rate used in the food industry is significantly low and the rate used in the beer industry is growing each passing year. The barley used as animal feed should contain high protein rate. High rate of husk decreases the nutritional value. Thus, six-row barley with high protein rate and low husk rate is used as feed barley. The protein rate is desired to be low in the malt barley (9-10,5%). For this reason, malt for beer production is obtained from two-row white barley. WORLD BARLEY PRODUCTION AND MAJOR PRODUCER COUNTRIES Today, barley is planted widely under any climate conditions from the North Pole to the tropical regions and plays a key role in the agricultural economies of especially temperate zones. The barley production in the world changes between 120 and 130 million tons. According to the data of U.S. Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA); world barley production, which was around 151 million tons in 2009/10 season, has shown some decrease in the last years. Declining to 123,1 million tons in 2010/11 season, world barley production reached 133,5 million tons with a small increase in 2011/12 season. However, the production declined again in 2012/13 season and remained at 130 million tons level. In 2013/14 season, there was a significant increase in barley production like many other grain products and the production reached to 145,1 million tons. USDA projects that world barley production will decline to 131 million tons by decreasing approximately 14 million tons in 2014/15 season. When the production data of 2013/14 is taken into consideration, European Union countries take the first place in world barley production with 59,6 million tons. On single country basis, Russia is the largest producer. It is estimated that Russia has realized 15,3 million-ton barley production in 2013/14 season. Canada with 10,2 million tons, Australia with 9,6 million tons, Ukraine with 7,5 million tons and Turkey with 7,3 million tons follow Russia. Argentina rank 7th in the world production with 4,7 million-ton production. However, USDA data about barley production in Turkey doesn’t correspond to the data of Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK). There is 600 thousand-ton difference between TUIK and USDA data. WORLD BARLEY CONSUMPTION MAJOR CONSUMER COUNTRIES When the barley consumption in the worldwide is taken into consideration, it is seen that the world consumption in total has been a little over the production in the recent years. While 150,8 million tons production was realized and the consumption was 144,9 million tons in 2009/10 season, there was a 13,1 million-ton difference between production and consumption in 2010/11 season. In that season 123,1 million tons of production was realized against 136,2 million tons of consumption. The difference was lower in 2011/12 and 2012/13 seasons but there was a similar amount. While the world consumed 135,2 million tons of barley against 133,5 million tons of production in 20122/12 season, this amount was 130 million tons against 131,7 million tons in 2012/13 season. According to USDA data; world barley production reached to the level that could meet the consumption only in 2013/14 season and the consumption remained at 141,7 million tons against 145,1 million tons of production. USDA’s world barley projection for 2014/15 season is 136,5 million tons. If this projection comes true, world barley production will be behind the consumption again in 2014/15 season. The largest share of world barley consumption belongs to European Union countries just like for the production (53,7 million-ton consumption in 2013/14 season). On single country basis, Russia continues to rank first in world barley consumption. The barley consumption of Russia is 12,8 million tons in 2013/14 season. Saudi Arabia with 8,5 million tons, Canada with 7,9 million tons, Turkey with 6,9 million tons and Ukraine with 5,1 million tons follow Russia. WORLD BARLEY TRADE The barley amount which is subject to world trade in the last four seasons has fluctuated between 15 and 22 million tons. According to USDA data; the world barley trade ,which was 17,2 million tons in 2009/10 season, declined 2,1 million tons to 15,1 million tons in 2010/11 season. Rising again in the next two seasons, world barley trade reached 21,3 million tons in 2011/12 seasons and 22,1 million tons that was the highest level in the last 4 years in 2012/13 season. Estimating that barley amount subjected to world trade in 2013/14 season is 20,2 million tons, USDA foresees that this amount will be almost at the same level (20,4 million tons) in 2014/15 season. In 2013/14 season, Australia realized alone 5,7 million tons (28,2%) of the world barley export that was 20,2 million tons. European Union countries follow Australia with 5,5 million tons. Ranking first in the world barley export in the previous season, European Union Countries showed a decline of 2,3 million tons in barley export compared to the previous season and ranked second (4,1 million tons). In the same season; Argentina with 3 million tons, Russia and Ukraine with 2,3 million tons per each, Canada with 1,2 million tons and Kazakhstan with 400 thousand tons follow European Union countries. According to the projections of USDA; EU will be on the top again in 2014/15 season with 5,8 million-ton export and Australia, Russia and Argentina will follow EU. Saudi Arabia ranks first in the world barley import as usual. Realizing 40 % of world barley import all by itself, Saudi Arabia realized 10,2 million-ton import in 2012/13 season and 8 million-ton import in 2013/14 season. China with 3,3 million tons, Japan with 1,3 million tons, Jordan with 750 thousand tons and United Arab Emirates with 550 thousand tons follow Saudi Arabia in world barley import. While the import amounts realized by Saudi Arabia, Japan and Jordan in 2013/14 season decreased, China’s import increased almost 1,2 million tons. BARLEY PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION IN TURKEY Being able to be planted in almost every region of Turkey, barley ranks second in agricultural products after wheat in terms of cultivation area and production. Barley is cultivated in almost every region of Turkey but especially Central Anatolia (Konya, Ankara, Eskişehir and Kırşehir) and Southeastern Anatolia Region(Şanlıurfa, Diyarbakır, Mardin)are two important regions for barley cultivation. Barley cultivation area, production and yield show fluctuations by years. In the 10-year period between 1995 and 2005, the highest cultivation area was in 1998, the highest yield and production were in 2005. Between 2002 and 2013, the highest cultivation area was in 2005, the highest yield was in 2013 and the highest production was in 2006. According to Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) data; cultivating barley in 36 million-decare area in 2002, Turkey realized 8,3 million-ton production. In 2005 the cultivation area reached 36,5 million decare that was the highest level of the last 10 years and the production reached 9,5 million tons in the same period. In 2006, the production reached the highest level of the last 10 years by increasing 51 million tons. However the cultivation area and production amount declined in the recent years. Turkey cultivated barley in 27,2 million-hectare area and realized 7,9 million tons of production in 2013. The yield is very low as the barley cultivation is done mostly in dry conditions in Turkey. The barley yield of Turkey is below the world barley yield. While the world barley yield in 2006/07 season was 2,43 ton/ha, the barley yield of Turkey in the same period was 2,06 ton/ha. Significant increases and decreases are experienced in the yield by years. Although there is an increase in the yield and the yield amount has reached 2,58 level, narrowing of cultivation area causes the production to be at low levels compared to previous years. Turkey uses almost all of the barley production for the domestic consumption. 90 % of barley production is used as animal feed and the rest is used in malt production for beer and food industry in Turkey. The amount used in food industry is very low, while the rate used in beer industry increases each passing year.