The Canadian International Grains Institute wants Chinese maltsters to stop buying Canada’s top-selling barley variety and start buying some of the new varieties.
That is the message the institute hopes to leave with 18 representatives of China’s largest malting and brewing companies, who are here to learn about Canada’s malting and brewing industry.
Harrington is rapidly falling out of favor with Canadian farmers.
“We have a big problem with Harrington because it’s really hammered by disease now,” said Eric Lefol, a Crop Development Centre breeder who spoke to the delegation at the Kernen Crop Research Farm near Saskatoon.
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“To produce good quality Harrington, you have to apply so much pesticide and fungicide that it’s not worth it for producers anymore.”
Harrington is a 20-year-old variety that delivers yields that are 14 percent lower than newer lines. And it is susceptible to infestations of the spot form of net blotch, which can reduce yields by 30 percent.
Lefol estimates the production cost of Harrington to be $170 per acre, which means farmers can’t break even with an average yield of 56 bushels per acre.
That’s why the supply of Harrington barley is shrinking. In 1998, the variety represented 67 percent of the malting barley grown in Canada. Last year, it was 56 percent.
But maltsters like Harrington. It gives good quality malt with low protein under a variety of malting situations. It has dominated the brewing industry for years and maltsters are not eager to tamper with longstanding formulations.
China is the second largest importer of Canadian malting barley. Last year, it bought 428,000 tonnes from Canada, up from 291,000 in the 1998-99 crop year.
“It is the largest growing market for malting barley in the world,” said Joan Anderson, barley marketing manager for the Canadian Wheat Board. “Their beer consumption has been rising dramatically in the past five years and they’ve increased malting capacity.”
Anderson said the Chinese have been more willing to try the new varieties than Canadian maltsters have. A few members of the contingent visiting Canada have experimented with CDC Kendall, CDC Stratus and AC Metcalfe.
“In terms of malting performance, these three varieties are compatible with Harrington,” said Zhili Li, deputy general manager of Dalian COFCO Malt Co. Ltd. speaking through an interpreter.
“However, in terms of hull adherence and plumpness and extract amount, these three new varieties are actually superior to Harrington.”
His company produces 300,000 tonnes of malt a year. It imports about 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes of Canadian barley annually, most of it Harrington.
Zheng Liu is chief engineer of Yantai Malting, a company that produces 120,000 tonnes of malt a year. His plant just conducted the first commercial test of the three new varieties and was pleased with the malting performance of Kendall.
“I think it’s very promising to replace Harrington with Kendall.”
While both Li and Liu are impressed with the quality of the new varieties, they balked at the price of Canadian malting barley compared with product from Australia and the European Union.
