CALGARY – Canada’s position as one of the world’s top producers and exporters of quality malting barley and malt is on the line as the regal barley variety of the malt business nears the end of its reign.
Harrington two-row barley, developed at the University of Saskatchewan 15 years ago and the strongest factor in Canada’s rise to malting barley prominence, is losing its lustre and its disease resistance, say malt barley experts.
The race is on in laboratories across the West to find a replacement before a competing country does.
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“We have a lot of possibilities in the pipeline,” Norm Kendall of the Winnipeg-based Brewing and Malting Barley Research Institute said last week. “But we cannot count the Australians out. We have been kicking their butts in China with Harrington. They are spending a lot of money to get back in the game.”
Lose position
For Art Froehlich, of Westcan Malting Ltd. in Alix, Alta., it is a variety-breeding race that means the difference between Canada being a dominant player in the malt field, or being an also-ran.
“We have become a world player on the back of Harrington because it makes such high-quality malt,” he said. “But acreage is declining and its time is passing. The race is on to replace Harrington. Our place in the world depends on it.”
At universities and federal research labs, new varieties are being developed and tested for protein, quality and processing characteristics. Millions of dollars for the effort are coming from Ottawa, from barley producers, the western grain research foundation and from the malt and brewing industries.
At stake is an industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Beyond the strong and growing domestic demand, world trade is expected to grow from 2.9 million tonnes now to 4.6 million tonnes in 10 years, Froehlich said.
Last week, Canadian Wheat Board chief commissioner Lorne Hehn told the United Grain Growers annual meeting world trade is expected to grow from 2.9 million tonnes now to 4.6 million tonnes in 10 years.
“This increasing demand for malting barley is an opportunity for Can-ada and with our reputation for quality, I believe that we can maintain and perhaps increase our one-third share in world trade,” Hehn said.
Later, he conceded the optimistic prediction depends on Canada finding a new, better malting barley variety before anyone else.
Kendall said from more than 50 percent of Canadian acreage, Harrington this year is down to one-quarter, but it still is dominant.
“It is becoming more disease prone so we have to move on,” he said. “But then, it will be a question of doing a lot of marketing work once we get a replacement. Our customers love Harrington. We’ll have to convince them we have a replacement that is just as good.”
