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Britain signs £100m barley deal with China
Britain has signed a £100 million deal with China to export around 750,000 tonnes of the grain to the country over the next five years, the UK’s Environment Secretary Elizabeth Truss has announced.
A barley field
Demand for British barley is growing in China as is the demand for beers and ales, with this deal set to give UK farmers a welcome boost.
Announcing the deal during a visit to “The Brew in Shanghai” – one of a number of microbreweries across China, Truss said: “British beer has a worldwide reputation and we’ve had huge successes selling more than a billion pints of our quality lager and stout around the world, building a stronger economy for the UK.”
China is the world’s biggest beer drinking country, consuming 54 billion litres every year ahead of the US (24 billion litres), Brazil (14 billion litres) and Russia and Germany (9 billion litres). As well as premium brands such as Tsingtao, Yanjing, Harbin and Laoshan, demand for craft ales and beers has rocketed. In Shanghai alone, the number of microbreweries has doubled between 2010 and 2012.
Exports of British beer are also booming, with £15 million worth of British beer was exported to the country last year, up 186% since 2013, according to Truss. While Fullers and Meantime are already popular, microbreweries such as St Peter’s Brewery in Suffolk and Ilkley Brewery in Yorkshire have also recently started exporting there.
“Ilkley Brewery in Yorkshire is an excellent example of a growing British company tapping into this global market”, added Truss. “I want to make sure British businesses seize the vast opportunities available in China, the world’s biggest food and drink market.”
“This deal represents a vast amount of work by AHDB and its partners and a huge opportunity for farmers in the UK”, said Jane King, chief executive of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB), who worked with Defra to secure the deal. “Our staff have worked very hard on levy payers’ behalf to get this protocol off the ground, and we look forward to seeing companies making the most of this new market access.”