Canada: Barley prices approaching all-time highs set in 2021

Brewers are getting squeezed by stubbornly high barley prices as a bumper North American harvest fails to quench demand for the beer-making ingredient, Bloomberg reported on November 14.

Brewers rely on malting barley to flavor beer, and prices in parts of Canada have surged more than 30% since August. Canadian barley prices are approaching the all-time highs set in 2021 as beermakers and livestock feeders seek to replenish dwindled supplies after last year’s drought, said Peter Watts, managing director of the Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre.

“The pricing thing is a bit of a hangover from last year,” Watts said by phone, adding that there is strong demand from the livestock sector for feed in addition to interest from big malting barley buyers like China. “We had such a severe drought and small crop that carryout stocks were drawn down to the bare bones.”

Dry weather scorched fields last year, shrinking Canada’s barley harvest to the second-smallest since 1968. US farmers reaped the smallest crop since 1934, just after Prohibition ended. Barley production rebounded this year, jumping 34% in Canada and 45% in the US. North America typically harvests enough barley to account for a fifth of global commercial beer production.

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