One of Canada’s top maltsters has some advice for barley producers: Find out what the end user wants and grow it.
It sounds simple, but Jack Tye said producers tend to be swayed more by the person selling the seed than by the company brewing the beer.
And in the malting business, it comes down to selling the customer the variety he wants.
“Farmers have to be more in tune with what the end users are telling the industry,” said Tye, grain manager for Canadian Malting Co.
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“In other words, people are pushing the seed and farmers are buying into what they’re telling them when in fact it could be hurting some markets by not having the right variety available.”
A tight supply of six-row malting barley this year is a prime example, he said. Too many farmers grew varieties based on what the seed company wanted to sell rather than what the domestic and international beer industry wanted to buy.
When that happens, everyone pays, Tye said.
“There could be a lot of disappointed producers with malt quality barley that won’t get accepted.”
Tye said supplies of two-row varieties such as Oxbow and TR-128 have “far exceeded the market demand.
“Everybody recognizes things change and to look for new varieties, but they don’t change that fast.”
There hasn’t been any Oxbow selected this year, he said.
“The brewing companies have not caught up with it yet.”
According to Tye, there needs to be more communication between people selling the seed and the industry’s market development force.
“If you don’t have a co-ordinated effort you get off track.
“When producers start thinking about what to grow next year, they should dig a little deeper and find out what the market wants.”
