Canadian-based grain company Viterra is continuing to make inroads in Australia.
The company, which acquired Australia’s ABB Grain Ltd. in 2009, is expanding capacity of its Australian grain handling network and has also begun building a new malting plant near Sydney, the country’s largest city.
According to e-malt. com, an online resource for the malting barley industry, the new Minto plant will increase Viterra’s Australian malt production by more than 20 percent.
The acquisition of ABB Grain gives Viterra malting plants in Western Australia, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales.
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The addition of the Minto plant will add another 110,000 tonnes of annual capacity, boosting total production capacity to more than 600,000 tonnes per year.
The Minto plant will allow Viterra to service growing Asian markets for finished malt, most notably China.
China is the world’s largest beer consumer.
In 2010, it produced 450 billion litres of beer and consumed almost 3.5 million tonnes of malting barley.
Over the past five years, Chinese beer production has grown by almost 10 percent per year, but domestic barley production has been declining for the past 20 years.
To satisfy the country’s growing appetite for beer, Chinese brewers have imported more barley and looked for ways to brew more beer from each tonne of finished malt.
Some brewers are using substitute ingredients such as corn and rice, especially for non premium products, and others are exploring new brewing methods that are less dependent on high quality malt.
Nonetheless, Chinese demand for malting barley is expected to grow steadily.
The $110 million Aus Minto project will also include a container packing facility that will handle an additional 147,000 tonnes of grain each year, according to Eric Roozendaal, New South Wales treasurer and minister for state and regional development.
“The new Minto facility will provide an ongoing source of business for New South Wales barley growers,” he said in a news release.
Viterra also announced last month that it will increase its grain storage capacity in South Australia by 800,000 tonnes.
Dean McQueen, the company’s executive manager of grain in Australia, said the company would spend $9 million to expand capacity at various locations in South Australia.
The expansion projects are located within 250 kilometres of the port of Adelaide on the country’s south coast.
“We are staffing and investing in additional storage at our major sites,” said McQueen.
