SASKATOON — Canada’s malting barley industry is setting its sights on the Mexican market.
It is the world’s second largest importer of processed malt and the third largest buyer of malting barley, said Peter Watts, managing director of the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC).
Canada is eager to expand sales into that market to reduce its reliance on China and the United States, two markets where there have been a series of recent trade challenges.
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CMBTC has been focused on market diversification the past couple of years, and Mexico is an obvious first choice.
It is the second or third largest market for Canadian processed malt in any given year, but it has not been a buyer of malting barley until recently.
“It’s the same old Canadian story,” said Watts.
“It’s price. We’re an expensive origin.”
Mexico’s maltsters have been buying their malting barley from the U.S., France and Australia.
But now that Australia is back in the Chinese market after a four-year hiatus due to a trade spat, there is an opportunity for Canada to gain a foothold in Mexico.
Mexico purchased 33,000 tonnes of Canadian malting barley in April of this year, the first cargo since 2020.
“We’re starting to make some inroads,” said Watts.
“We opened the door.”
The CMBTC hopes to push that door open wider during a trade mission at the end of October, the first to that market in many years.
Watts said the mission will be about opening channels of communication, building relationships, understanding their challenges and talking to them about Canadian malting barley quality and supply.
One of the main goals is to get the major brewers in the market — Anheuser-Busch InBev, Constellation Brands and Heineken — to accept Canada’s new varieties, such as AAC Synergy, AAC Connect and CDC Fraser.
Watts said the Mexican market is accessible by rail and sea. Processed malt is shipped by rail, while malting barley moves by vessel through the Port of Vancouver.
Canada is going to have a lot of barley to sell in 2025-26. Statistics Canada pegs the crop at 8.23 million tonnes, but Watts said the agency’s model-based estimates missed the mark.
“Everybody feels that number is too low,” he said.
He believes nine million tonnes is “not unreasonable,” and fully expects Statistics Canada to ratchet up its number by the final December report.
The challenge for Canada is that Australia has regained its position as the top importer to China, vastly reducing Canada’s share of its top market.
Canada shipped 1.6 million tonnes of malt and feed barley to China in 2024-25, which is less than half of what it was sending when Australia was out of the picture.
That is why finding new markets or expanding existing ones is paramount.
Colombia, Peru and Ecuador are other target regions. Canada used to sell malting barley to Colombia, but it lost that market about a decade ago.
Canada’s malting barley prices were high during the 2020-24 period, but they started dropping in 2025, which is creating marketing opportunities in places such as South America.
Watts said the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement gives Canada duty-free access to the Mexican market, but other origins have the same access, so there is no real competitive advantage.
The recently signed Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between Canada and Mexico was a step in the right direction.
It does not provide any immediate market access benefits for the barley sector, but it might be a conduit for discussions on some of the transportation challenges Canada faces getting into the Mexican market, he said.
