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.