Grains of Barley - photo credit to Alberta Barley

By Alice McFarlane files

Good news for Canada’s malting barley growers: from the beer industry

Oct 7, 2020 | 5:07 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB. — “With the ingredients that go into beer I think people, for the most part, make that connection of barley and beer.”

The comment comes from Canadian Malting Barley Technical managing director Peter Watts. However, Watts notes consumers may not know that Canada is one of the world’s largest producers and suppliers of malting barley and most of that comes from Alberta and Saskatchewan.

After a decline in beer purchases early this spring due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sales have bounced back and are close to last year’s numbers.

Beer sales dropped by 2.4 per cent in March, 4.8 per cent in April and 2.5 per cent in May. It was the result of the closure of restaurants and bars and the cancellation of sporting events.

There was a big turnaround with service businesses reopening and the return of warmer weather. Beer Canada reports domestic sales of 10.4 million hectolitres which is an increase of 0.1 per cent.

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Canadian Malting Barley Technical managing director Peter Watts said national beer sales in June were up 3.6 per cent with July at 3.5 per cent.

“We saw a quicker recovery than many people may have expected so that’s really positive news for our industry domestically and of course for Canadian brewers,” he said. “It will be interesting to see what happens with future beer consumption with fewer outdoor patios and decks.”

As consumers adjusted to the changes they turned to home deliveries in a way to make it easier for people to purchase beer.

“The beer industry has been innovative over the last four or five months and I expect them to do so as we move into winter,” Watt said.

It is estimated 149,000 jobs are supported by beer in the brewery, transportation, hospitality, or agriculture sectors. There has been a lot more awareness in recent years particularly with the rapid growth of the craft brewing industry, according to Watts.