THE IMAGE of an Aussie and a frosty cold beer is etched into the national psyche, but for all our hard earned thirst Australia’s total beer consumption is positively dwarfed by that in the world’s most populous nation, China.
A recent delegation from the Australian Export Grains Innovation Centre (AEGIC) and Barley Australia visited China and was stunned by the sheer scale of the beer and malting industry there.
While Australia belts down a wholly respectable 1.87 billion litres of the amber nectar each year that figure becomes a drop in the ocean when compared to the amount of suds the Chinese put away.
AEGIC’s data showed that in 2016 China went through a whopping 45.6 billion litres.
To put that in perspective, that is enough beer to fill some 18,280 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
All that beer is great news for Aussie barley producers.
According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data China is far and away Australia’s biggest international buyer of barley, with a four year average purchase to the end of the 2016-17 marketing year of 4.2 million tonnes, or around $1.2 billion a year.
But it is not just malting barley that Chinese buyers are sourcing from Australia, they are increasingly looking to purchase feed quality grain for their booming livestock on feed sector.
As part of a push trying to ensure Chinese buyers are satisfied with the performance of Australian barley AEGIC and Barley Australia hosted two Australian barley technical workshops in Guangzhou in China’s south and in the capital Beijing.
The workshop were run with assistance from a number of members of the Aussie barley industry, including Austrade, CSIRO, barley breeders SeedNet and InterGrain and barley producer Andrew Weidemann.
AEGIC barley markets manager Mary Raynes said the workshops were attended by over 160 representatives of major Chinese brewing companies, members of the livestock industry, and maltsters and traders.
“There was an overwhelming response to the workshops with a range of diverse interests taking part,” Ms Raynes said.
“To put the total consumption in perspective is difficult, but you’re talking about 138 billion 330ml beers a year, it isn’t difficult to see this market is very important for Australia.
China’s per capita beer consumption, according to 2013-14 data was less than half of Australia’s, 32 litres versus 75 litres, but the sheer number of people mean total consumption is huge.
Ms Raynes said Australia would see the best returns in the premium malt barley space, but added feed barley was also critical as it had larger export volumes and strong growth.
Ms Raynes said holding workshops similar to the recent one was an important industry good function to ensure China keeps buying Australian barley.
“Increasing technical understanding of the production, accreditation and processing of Australian barley for malting and animal feed helps enhance the value of Australian barley.
“These events help maintain and enhance the relationship between the Australian barley industry and key players in the Chinese brewing industry.”