There is growing pressure on Scotch whisky companies to use more native wheat as the raw material. At present, 200,000t of French maize is imported every year by 115 Scottish distillers to produce 2.5bn litres of Scotch.

However, Scottish grain growers are calling on distillers to switch to native Scottish wheat instead of maize. Were the industry to move to using native Scottish grain, it would create a market for as much as 220,000t of wheat.

Switching to wheat as a raw material requires significant changes in the production system, and the spirit yield from maize is higher than wheat. Maize typically has a spirit yield of 480l/t, compared with a spirit yield of 440l/t from wheat.

Scottish growers argue domestic wheat is more competitively priced thanks to the depreciation in sterling. North British Distillery, which uses 3000t of maize per week, has said it has already begun production trials from wheat in light of the Brexit vote.