Funding to help brew up support for Canada’s malting barley industry was announced this month under the Canada-Manitoba Economic Development Partnership Agreement.
The Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre will receive $150,000 through the shared funding agreement.
The new centre was created to support the development and marketing of Canadian malting barley and its products.
Located in the Canadian Grain Commission building in Winnipeg, it will house a pilot malting and brewing facility along with research laboratories. Researchers will evaluate products from the plant breeding stage to the malting process to the final beer product.
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The centre will be one of the stops made by malting barley customers from export markets. It also will provide marketing support to Canadian exporters and customers.
As well, the centre will help evaluate and demonstrate the suitability of newly registered varieties for certain market niches and for specific customers’ malt and beer specifications.
“It will expand our export opportunities by highlighting the malting and brewing performance of Canadian malting barley and promoting new barley varieties now grown in Canada,” said Ron Duhamel, secretary of state and federal minister of veterans affairs.
“This is an opportunity to expand the market of different types of malting barley, which would allow farmers to produce new varieties with better agronomic traits,” Duhamel said.
