Brewers, maltsters and government representatives in South and Central America showed strong interest in using more Australian malting barley during a recent mission to the region led by AEGIC’s Mary Raynes.
The trip was arranged by AEGIC to stimulate broader demand for Australian malting barley. This work is supported by the Australian Government’s Agricultural Trade and Market Access Cooperation (ATMAC) program, through Grains Australia.
Mary and a small team of key Australian experts met with the brewing and malting industries in Chile, Peru, Brazil and Mexico to strengthen relationships and build on new and existing export opportunities for Australian malting barley. Before this most recent trip, AEGIC actively made connections in these markets by educating the industry on the quality and value of Australian malting barley via webinars and meetings.
The Australian barley breeding industry provided essential technical expertise, represented by InterGrain’s David Moody and Australian Grain Technologies’ Paul Telfer, as well as Australian malting barley industry technical consultant to AEGIC, Trevor Perryman.
Chile
In Santiago, Chile, the team visited Maltexo, which is the largest malting company in Chile, primarily supplying the Heineken Brewing Company and their craft beer offshoot, Cervecera Kunstmann. They also met with the Chile beer industry association Beer Production Association of Chile, and AB Inbev.
Conversations indicated that Australian malting barley varieties have performed very well in previous quality trials for AB InBev and Heineken.
The Chilean industry wants to diversify its barley imports, noting it can import grain from Australia in a similar timeframe to that of Argentina (approximately 41 days). Chile is a smaller market using around 200,000 tonnes of barley annually.
Peru
The next stop was Lima, Peru to meet with AB InBev and Heineken, where the delegation received a warm welcome. AB InBev is the largest beer company in Peru, and in 2022-23 imported 95% of its malting barley needs from Australia. Peru has identified it can import barley more economically from Australia than Canada, and at higher quality. It also wants to diversify its import options.
Brazil
The Brazilian market is a large user of barley, especially in the malting industry, with domestic demand estimated to be 1.1 mmt annually.
While in Brazil, the team met with various groups including AB InBev, Heineken, Petropolis and Cooperativa Agraria. In Sao Paulo, a specially convened conference, presented by AEGIC in collaboration with Rabobank Brazil, was attended by maltsters, brewers and traders in addition to finance representatives. Attendees showed great interest in learning more about the Australian malting barley industry.
Brazil already imports Australian malt, and is looking to increase its use. Currently, Australia does not have market access for Australian unprocessed malting barley to Brazil.
Mexico
The final leg of the trip saw the team visiting Mexico City and Monterrey. Currently, Mexico is importing 80% of their malting barley needs from Australia.
AEGIC organised seminars in Monterrey and Mexico City, which were attended by participants from the Mexican barley, brewing and malting industries.
While tariffs were affecting access to the Chinese market, Mexico was Australia’s largest export market for malting barley. The Mexican brewing market has had an incredible period of growth in recent years and is now the fourth largest beer producer in the world. In 2021 Mexico imported 266,270 tonnes of malting barley, and 347,240 tonnes in 2022.
In 2022, Mexico was the world leader in beer exports, with gains of over US$6.03 billion. Mexico’s malting industry by comparison has not kept up with demand.
While Mexico does produce its own barley, the industry wants to diversify options for malting barley imports to include more options, including Australia.
The mission was a great success, and engagement by the Australian industry contingent with participants in each market was strong and collegiate.
Australia has a fantastic story to tell about the quality of Australian malting barley and our world-leading supply chain. Australian barley has an excellent reputation internationally due to our strong breeding programs and rigorous variety accreditation. AEGIC will continue to work with industry to diversify market options for Australian malting barley.
AEGIC is an initiative of the Western Australian State Government and Grains Australia.