Vietnam & Australia: Western Australia malting barley taps into Vietnamese beer market

Western Australian barley is helping to quench the thirst of beer drinkers in Vietnam, which is recognised for its strong and sophisticated beer culture, Mirage News reported on September

As part of a trade mission to the country, Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis visited a Vietnamese brewery, that uses WA's finest malting barley.

The visit provided a unique opportunity to strengthen government and industry connections and unlock new economic opportunities for WA and Vietnamese businesses.

The Minister also met with Intermalt, which is the largest malting facility in Southeast Asia and is part owned by WA-based CBH Group.

The malting facility is a key supplier to some of Vietnam's largest brewers of international beers and imports much of its barley from Australia.

In 2022-23, WA exported 352,000 tonnes of barley to Vietnam valued at A$139 million, up by 50,000 tonnes on the previous year.

As stated by Agriculture and Food Minister Jackie Jarvis:

"Vietnam is consistently one of the largest buyers of Western Australian barley, and their developing taste for craft beers is good news for our growers.

"Vietnam's beer consumption sits at about 3.8 million litres per year, ranking first in the ASEAN region and third in all of Asia after China and Japan.

"This is an increasingly important market for our WA growers and great recognition of the quality of our malting barley to produce impressive, flavoursome beers."

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