Canada swoops in on Chinese beer market as China slaps tariffs on Australian barley

Barley shipments from Canada to China rose in May, and France may also be set to benefit from the Australian tariffs

China is the world’s largest beer market, and consumers are increasingly shifting to premium and foreign brews from mass-market brands

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People at a beer-tasting event in China’s Shandong province in July 2018. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 1:41pm, 4 Jul 2020Updated: 7:56pm, 4 Jul 2020

As a barley battle brews in the Pacific Rim, Canadian producers are swooping in just in time to take advantage of China’s peak beer-drinking season.

Barley shipments from Canada to China rose in May as the Asian nation slapped anti-dumping duties on the grain from Australia, its top supplier. Canada exported 175,500 tons of barley to China in May, up 38 per cent from a year earlier, according to the Canadian Grain Commission.

Canada, the second-largest malt-barley exporter to China, had already been trying to win a bigger share of China’s beer market from Australia.

The northern nation’s barley has higher protein than crops from Australia, and that quality helps in fermentation to give beer more body and foam retention.

What’s happening to Australia will benefit Canada. If China comes into the market, really those additional acres will be absorbed easily

Errol Anderson, analyst

The number of acres allocated to barley in Canada is set to rise to the highest in more than a decade in 2020, and any additional output could be absorbed by demand from China’s beer and livestock industries, said Errol Anderson, market analyst and president of ProMarket Communications in Calgary. Canada is one of the world’s major barley producers and among the top exporters.