Colombia purchased 56,000 tonnes of the crop in 2025.

That was the South American country’s first major purchase of Canadian barley in about a decade.

Peter Watts, managing director of the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC), said Colombia regularly purchased 50,000 to 100,000 tonnes of Canadian barley between 2000 and 2013.

Canada had a good trading relationship with Bavaria, the largest brewing company in the country. It buys virtually all the malting barley exported into Colombia.

Bavaria was purchased by SABMiller in 2005, which was in turn swallowed up by Anheuser-Busch InBev in 2016.

Watts speculates that the change in ownership resulted in morphing quality specifications. Canadian barley is high in protein and sometimes brewers are looking for something more moderate.

AB InBev also has notoriously strict specifications on tendering, including payment specifications. Some suppliers may not have wanted to meet those specifications.

Price was also likely a factor. Canadian barley was sold at a premium to competitors for many years.

The upshot was that purchases from Canada stopped for about a decade.

Why it Matters: Canada needs new markets for malting barley now that Australia is back in the Chinese market.

But about a year ago, Canadian barley prices started to fall as China resumed purchases from Australia after a lengthy trade spat. That pushed a lot of Canadian barley out of the Chinese market.

And then Canada harvested a bumper crop of barley in 2025. Farmers produced 9.73 million tonnes, a 19 per cent improvement over the previous year, putting even more downward pressure on prices.

“Prices have been a lot more competitive in the global market,” said Watts.

At the same time, French malting barley prices climbed higher due to a short crop in that key exporting nation.

Those events, combined with years of continued market development work, encouraged Colombia to reconsider Canadian supplies, and they were happy with that decision.

Watts and other members of Canada’s barley sector spent a week in Colombia in March meeting with Bavaria officials.

“We had a good visit with them,” he said.

“We expect that there will be continued interest from Colombia in buying Canadian malting barley going forward. They indicated they’d like that.”

Bavaria also operates breweries in Chile and Peru, and its sister company, Cerveceria Nacional, does business in Ecuador. Bavaria officials indicated there may be opportunities to use Canadian malting barley in those countries as well.

However, Watts pointed out that those countries are located on the west side of South America and are more likely to import product from Australia and Argentina.

Watts said Latin American markets, including Mexico, probably account for about one million tonnes of annual malting barley demand.

If Canada can capture one-quarter of that demand, it would be substantial.

The good news is that Latin America’s beer market remains relatively strong compared to other regions of the world where it is sagging.

Bavaria just built a brand-new brewery in Colombia that added 10 per cent to the company’s annual production there.

Watts said the two malting plants he visited while in Colombia were “world class” facilities that were clean and extraordinarily efficient.

CMBTC will continue working with Bavaria’s technical team to evaluate newer Canadian malting barley varieties.

AAC Connect and CDC Fraser have been pilot tested and have commercial trials pending.

Evaluation of CDC Churchill will soon be underway. Watts believes it will be a good fit because Bavaria likes CDC Copeland, which is a lower enzyme variety like Churchill.

Watts said CMBTC will continue providing Bavaria with quality and performance data on new varieties as well as annual crop quality and production data.

And Bavaria officials will continue attending CMBTC’s training courses at its facility in Winnipeg.

One of those questions is how high is too high for a nitrogen rate?

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More precisely, what nitrogen rate will maximize yields but won’t cause severe lodging?

What rate will produce too much protein in the kernel, thus exceeding the specifications for malt barley?

To answer those questions, SaskBarley and the Western Applied Research Corp. (WARC) have partnered with several growers in the province for on-farm trials.

The goal of the project to optimize barley fertility.

The research is needed because the latest malt varieties, such as CDC Churchill and AAC Synergy, are producing yields of 90 to 100 bushels per acre in certain parts of Saskatchewan.

That’s 15 to 20 per cent higher yields than established malt varieties, such as CDC Copeland.

“It’s not just the yield potential of these (new) varieties. They (also) have lower protein, they’ve got higher resistance to disease and better resistance to lodging,” said Mitchell Japp, research and extension manager with SaskBarley.

“All those things come together to allow the farmer to push barley yield a little bit higher than an older variety like Copeland or Metcalfe.”

This sort of on-farm research, where commercial growers partner with commodity groups to answer agronomic questions, is becoming more common in Saskatchewan.

This year, 62 producers are collaborating with SaskBarley, SaskPulse, SaskWheat and SaskOilseeds on replicated, field scale trials. Some producers are doing more than one trial, considering there are 103 sites for on-farm research projects in 2025.

On June 25, the four crop commissions will jointly host a tour of on-farm research near Davidson.

Details of the tour can be found on the websites for the various commissions.

As for the barley project, some growers worry about applying too much nitrogen because maltsters have protein thresholds of approximately 12.5 per cent.

As a result, they keep rates low, maybe too low.

Small plot research suggests that higher nitrogen rates are feasible on barley — maybe 120 pounds per acre, including residual nitrogen in the soil.

“These new varieties are able to respond to notably higher levels of nitrogen than what we’ve seen in the past … without compromising malt quality,” Japp said.

However, plot trials aren’t the same as the field.

That’s why four growers in Saskatchewan are working with SaskBarley to study what’s possible in real world conditions.

The Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre revealed its 2025-26 Recommended Barley Varieties List Nov. 21. Five varieties made the cut: AAC Connect, CDC Fraser, CDC Churchill, AAC Synergy and CDC Copeland.

The centre’s annual recommendations are based on the strength of a variety’s agronomic traits, malting characteristics and market demand. The guide is designed to help stakeholders meet the domestic and export needs of end users.

“These varieties reflect the strength and stability of Canada’s malting barley production while also supporting the development of new and innovative options,” wrote Peter Watts, managing director of the centre, in a news release.

Players across the value chain, including growers, processors, exporters and seed companies, were consulted in the centre’s decision process.

AAC Synergy, CDC Copeland and AAC Connect represent trusted standbys both domestically and for export, the centre noted. Newer varieties like CDC Fraser and CDC Churchill are steadily gaining traction with domestic producers and showing potential in export markets.

“With their agronomic strengths and processing performance, newer varieties like CDC Fraser and CDC Churchill are attracting interest from growers and buyers m alike,” wrote Jon White, the centre’s board chair.

“However, widespread adoption depends on finding the right balance. Growers need confidence in market opportunities, while buyers require consistent supply to meet their needs. Bridging this gap is critical to success.”

The guide also highlights malting options for specific market needs, including varieties for brewing and distilling, as well as emerging variety options under development.

Advances in malt barley genetics tend to move slower than they do with other commodities. Breeding companies have traditionally been cautious with new offerings and maltsters prefer older, proven genetics.

One of the 2025-26 list’s recommended varieties, CDC Copeland, was registered before the turn of the millennium.

Watts described the dilemma in 2022.

“It’s been difficult to get uptake of new varieties over the years by the malting and brewing industry, partly because we’ve had very successful varieties like AC Metcalfe and CDC Copeland,” he said during a field day near Wawanesa.

That same field day highlighted a new variety, AAC Prairie, which was also noted by the centre as a developing variety for the brewing market. Industry has noted less maltster reticence around newcomer varieties in recent years.

“With growing market acceptance of the newer varieties and the improvement in agronomy and disease packages, now is a good time for producers to consider adding a new malt variety to their rotation,” wrote Watts in the Nov. 21 release.

The centre works closely with the barley value chain to encourage adoption of new varieties.

“We rigorously test new varieties at the micro and pilot scale, and work with our partners to evaluate at the commercial scale to provide end users with the data to build confidence,” Watts said.

That ensures trust at the grower, maltster and brewery level when testing new varieties.

Full details of the 2025-26 list can be found on the centre’s website. The centre encourages malt barley growers to consult with their seed suppliers and malting companies to identify the best options for their farms and explore contract opportunities for the 2025 growing season.

Earlier this year, the Canadian Malt Barley Technical Centre said grain companies had reported a higher number of malt barley samples than usual were not meeting the 95 percent purity minimum their contracts required. Most of these samples were Copeland.

CMBTC managing director Peter Watts said results from genetic tests on the original seed came in last week.

“It is Copeland,” he said.

Many malt barley customers are sensitive to purity standards and Watts said it is critical they know the variety has not been contaminated.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced last week it would study the varietal purity of Copeland this growing season after high levels, more than five percent, of the undesignated DNA began appearing last fall.

Watts said this DNA is actually the third to appear in Copeland; the other two were detected and incorporated into genetic testing early in the variety’s existence.

This third DNA has been known since 2012, but was always at low levels.

“The real story is what environmental factor led it to propagate,” Watts said.

The high percentages of the DNA triggered the CFIA’s involvement, he said.

The CFIA said it would investigate whether there had been contamination but acknowledged that wasn’t likely because it has been present at low levels for a long time.

“Our findings so far suggest that the varietal purity issue that was identified by a DNA analysis may actually be part of the variety, as it was found in the earliest release of breeder seed,” the agency said May 5.

Doug Miller, executive director of the Canadian Seed Growers Association, said he first heard of this issue late last year.

He said seed growers appreciate that CFIA is conducting robust analysis. That gives farmers confidence in their seed, he said.

“Based on the information that we’ve seen to date, it does not appear that we are looking at a varietal contamination event but rather a variety that may have multiple genetic profiles all while maintaining a similar phenomic expression of how a plant looks in the field and the end-use traits and quality parameters,” he said.

Varietal purity is critical in programs such as malt barley and he said certified seed is the best choice for producers.

Canada’s certification system is based on phenotype and Miller said if the end use characteristics are the same and the plant looks the same, it meets the description of that variety.

CFIA did not return a request for more information before Western Producer deadlines but Miller said the agency may be using a framework similar to its variety verification program to follow up.

He described the program as one of the best kept secrets in Canada’s seed certification system.

“Every year they plant up to 2,000 plots of samples based on higher generation certified seed and they grow it out alongside the reference control sample, so what the breeder has submitted, and they basically walk the fields and it’s a health check on the system to make sure that seed certification is working correctly,” he explained.

Plot walkers identify any off-types that could signal other issues.

Miller said the exercise provides a vital health check on the seed certification system and is also part of some international obligations. New varieties are assessed against the reference control samples.

He and Watts both said malting analysis shows that Copeland with the high levels of the DNA performs nearly identically to Copeland with the lower levels.

“This is CFIA showing leadership and getting out there and doing an investigation whenever they hear concerns,” Miller added. “Everything that I’ve seen so far is indicating that the system is working.”