With the continuous increase of China's barley consumption demand, the import of barley increased sharply and rapidly, but the domestic barley planting area decreased significantly, the output continued to decline,the production scale reduced seriously, and the safety of the barley industry faced severe challenges. Based on the actual situation of barley industry development, 15 specific indicators were selected from three aspects of import, domestic production capacity and international competitiveness to construct an index system of influencing factors of barley industry development. The data from 1995 to 2020 were used as research samples, and the main factors results show that, the main factors affecting the development of barley industry are strong import dependence, weak trade competitiveness, poor production stability and import impact. Barley import has an important impact on the development of domestic barley industry. The production capacity and international competitiveness are the fundamental affecting factors. Therefore, the sustainable development of China's barley industry should be ensured by strengthening barley import management, promoting the diversification of import sources to reduce import impact and dependence, and strengthening policy support to improve domestic production capacity and international competitiveness.