A U.S. Grains Council (USGC) trade team of Mexican craft brewers visited the United States recently to familiarize themselves with U.S. malting barley production and learn about new barley variety development and U.S. quality standards.

The brewing industry in Mexico is growing stronger and becoming more aggressive with many players making substantial investments in new brewing, malting and bottle manufacturing plants. These investments represent additional demand for malting barley as well as for barley malt.

This program focused on building connections with U.S. farmers and barley malt suppliers and developing concepts for new long-term purchasing strategies.

One of the team’s first stops was at a short course in Idaho during which team members saw firsthand the 2016 malting barley crop, discussed new variety developments and visited Great Western Malting Company’s commercial malting facility in Pocatello.

The team left the United States with a better understanding of U.S. barley and barley malt production, which will help achieve future sales of the commodity to Mexico. This is important because Mexican craft brewers have a preconceived notion that European barley malts are better, and they tend to favor them.

Craft brewery growth is currently hindered because breweries find difficulty in obtaining barley malt (and other inputs) for the beer. Craft breweries also face challenges importing ingredients from Europe under the tariff rate quota (TRQ) because the large breweries control this quota.

It is important that this industry learn about U.S. malt, like this team did, as it can be imported at any time and it can perform equally to European malt.

Click here to view more photos of this team.