Getting good malting barley is getting hard.
That’s what two of Canada’s export barley customers say about finding the beer ingredient in the world market.
“It is more difficult,” said Japanese maltster Masaharu Sugiura in an interview during a visit to the Canadian International Grains Institute in Winnipeg.
Colombian maltster Carlos Andres Badel Robles agreed.
“The company is also struggling because each time it is more difficult to find good barley with good quality according to the brewery needs,” he said. “From time to time it is hard to find the right variety for our malting and brewing purposes.”
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Sugiura and Robles were taking part in the third CIGI-Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre International Malt and Malting Barley Program.
Malting barley prices have risen, enjoying the world rally in grain but benefiting particularly from the crop failure last year in Australia, one of Canada’s key malting barley competitors.
That has meant good prices for prairie malting barley, but farmers haven’t seen the dramatic price rise in old crop barley because of the averaging nature of Canadian Wheat Board pooling. But new crop prices in the world market are much higher, suggesting farmers will get a pretty penny for crop grown this summer.
The CWB is not producing Pool Return Outlooks for malting barley for 2007-08 because it does not know whether it will maintain its monopoly nor how large a non-monopoly barley pool it would have to sell.
Sugiura and Robles both said they would continue to buy Canadian malting barley, but added they do not rely upon it exclusively.
Sugiura’s Asahi Beer Malt Co. blends malting barley stocks and other products to ensure consistency.
“I prefer Canadian malt because I use a lot of adjuncts, starches and rices. Canadian malt has strong enzyme power and extract, too,” Sugiura said. “Canadian malt suits our making beer.”
Robles said high prices and a short supply have pushed his company, Malteria Tropical, to investigate unusual malting ingredients.
“My company is looking around the world and testing other kinds of cereals that we potentially can use in the malting and brewing industry.”
However, even with a bigger Australian crop and Argentina’s crop in the offing, Canada will remain the preferred supplier.
“The barley that comes from Canada, the barley that comes from Australia, the barley that comes from Argentina – completely different,” he said.
Canadian barley has higher quality, better protein, more enzymatic potential and more soluble protein content. He had problems using Australian malting barley a few years ago
“(Quality) is too important for our malting plant and also the brewery,” he said.
“It was more difficult to handle.”
Robles said his company had trouble with Canadian malting barley early this decade, when protein levels rose after droughts, but in recent years quality has returned and increased.
“It makes us happy,” he said.
CIGI executive director Barry Senft said the loyalty of customers such as Sugiura and Robles is typical of buyers who require quality barley.
“The consistency and quality of Canadian barley and malt is something that people appreciate very much,” he said.
“It’s that they know what they are getting.”
Mexican milling wheat miller Jose Francisco Mendez Villanueva agreed.
“What you buy is what you receive.”
