Canada’s beer brewing industry is urging federal and provincial governments to make more research funding available to create more robust varieties of malting barley.
Luke Harford, president of the Brewers Association of Canada, told the House of Commons agriculture committee that a strong malting barley industry is a key foundation for the Canadian brewing industry, which represents 12 percent of the multibillion-dollar food manufacturing sector.
He told MPs that Growing Forward 2 programming should include long-term plans for malting barley variety development.
Harford said brewers have also made money available to match government dollars.
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“It is very important for Canada’s brewing industry that federal funding for malting barley breeding development programs be provided and remain in place over the long term as cereal breeding is a multi-year process,” he said.
Canadian brewers buy up to 350,000 tonnes of malting barley a year, he added.
Harford said Canada lost most of its hops-producing industry in the 1990s, and the brewing industry has become almost entirely dependent on imported hops from the United States and Europe.
He said Canada should update its minimum residue levels to make them equivalent to standards applied in the U.S.
He also said Canadian compositional standards for beer are out of date as new beer varieties come onto the market but do not qualify for the label.
“The standard has become too prescriptive in some ways and obsolete in others,” he said.
“It has begun to cause problems with label approvals and even product development. Modernizing the beer standard is essential to ensuring that brewers can continue to innovate within the beer category and remain competitive in the marketplace.”
Harford said Canadian research investment in the 1960s and 1970s put Canada “on the global map” with the Harrington variety. Later came the effective Copeland and Metcalfe varieties.
However, the malting barley base of the industry must constantly be renewed.
“We need to make sure there is that investment going in with industry, not just government on its own but industry and growers working together to make sure the investments are going in for those varieties that will continue to keep Canada on the global stage when it comes to malt barley,” he said.
Harford said Canada is the world’s 10th largest beer exporter.
He also said the retail price of beer in Canada is at least 50 percent tax — “the second highest tax rate in the world.”
