Canada: Barley malt buyers count on reliable supply

Published Apr 8, 2021

Tridge summary

Farmers and maltsters in Western Canada do not anticipate a shortage of malt barley this year, despite high feed barley prices. They plan to continue growing malt barley, despite the potential for cross-contamination and lower prices for malt barley contracts. Maltsters, including Rahr Malting, expect Canadian barley acres to increase, provided there is no drought. However, the beer industry has been hit hard by COVID-19, with about 25% of draft beer sales lost due to the cancellation of sporting events, concerts, and reduced restaurant and bar traffic. The sudden rise of White Claw Hard Seltzer has also cut into beer sales by about 10%. Despite these challenges, farmers are open to selling their malt barley stocks into the feed market, where they can fetch higher prices.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

Farmers and maltsters are not anticipating a dearth of malt barley this year despite sky-high feed barley prices. “I always find that guys who grow malt barley tend to stick to it,” said Leroy Newman, an Alberta Barley board member. He will not be switching to growing feed barley on his farm near Blackie, Alta., just because the prices are far better. “You don’t want to be mixing feed barley and malt barley on your farm very often because you can get cross contamination,” said Newman. It is a pain to have to clean equipment thoroughly when moving back and forth between feed and malt barley fields, he said. Kevin Sich, supply chain director with Rahr Malting, said it would be short-sighted for a malt barley grower to abandon the crop after an unusual year like 2020-21 when feed barley prices eclipsed malt barley prices. There are also crop insurance considerations because farmers can’t get insurance on malt barley if they are growing feed barley on the same farm. Sich expects there ...

Source: The Western Producer