Imports of malt, barley, wheat and maize decreased in 2021. Barley imports dropped by almost 18%, while wheat imports declined by nearly 15%. Maize imports only declined by 9% in the same time.

Malt imports took the biggest drop, although over a much smaller tonnage than the other three grains listed above.

Malt imports totalled 4,929t in 2021, down 79% on the year previous.

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The majority of the grain imported is used for animal feed. However, at least 120,000t of maize is estimated to be used in Irish whiskey production, while some barley may also be used in the production of drinks. The majority of malt is destined for the drinks industry.

A breakdown of where these imports came from and how they differ from other years is outlined below.

It should be noted that the data is raw data supplied by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) and may be subject to change. The data includes imports from January to December 2021, so it includes two different animal feeding seasons.

Barley

In total, 171,023t of barley (unmilled) was imported into the Republic of Ireland in 2021, down 17.7% from 201,364t in the year previous.

The majority of barley (67% or 115,000t) came from Great Britain, while 19% (32,612t) crossed the border from Northern Ireland.

However, it is likely that much of this barley was not produced in Northern Ireland, but was transported from a port. A further 10% (18,486t) came from France.

Wheat

Some 171,948t of wheat (other wheat, including spelt and meslin, unmilled) was imported into the Republic of Ireland in 2021. This is down 14.6% or 29,416t on 2020.

Denmark (30%), France (20%) and Great Britain (23%) accounted for the majority of this wheat, while Northern Ireland (11%), Lithuania (10%), Latvia (3%) and Finland (2%) covered the majority of the remaining tonnage.

Maize

Maize (not including sweetcorn, unmilled, other than seed) imports were down by 122,480t or 9.4% on 2020.

Some 41% of the maize imported into the Republic of Ireland in 2021 came from Canada. Approximately 189,177t (16%) came from Ukraine, 14% travelled from Brazil, while Northern Ireland (7%), France (6%), Romania (3%) and the UK (1%) exported smaller amounts.

Malt

As mentioned above, malt (including malt flour) imports took a dramatic drop in 2021, declining by 78% from 23,357t in 2020 to 4,929t in 2021.

Imports increased dramatically in 2019 to 66,507t (up from 27,164t on 2018) following an incident and subsequent repairs at Boortmalt’s maltings plant in Athy.

The return to lower levels may be a sign of a change in the industry, parts of which now realise it is no longer sustainable to import malt into this country.

Netherlands and Great Britain accounted for a significant amount of the malt imports at 38% and 36% respectively, while 23% of malt imports travelled from Northern Ireland.

Anomalies

Looking at the figures, it is clear that there are discrepancies in the data. For instance, we see a large amount of grain coming from Northern Ireland, but this grain is not all produced in Northern Ireland.

Maize is a good example of this. While 83,815t of maize is estimated to have come into this country from Northern Ireland, this maize grain could not have been produced there, as it needs plenty of heat and sunshine.

This maize most likely arrived at a port in Northern Ireland and then travelled to the Republic of Ireland, so looking at the CSO figures, we do not know where this maize originated from. This could of course be questioned on all imports, but it is more obvious in this case.

Welcome news

The reduction in imports is welcome and positive. Good grass growth, reasonable ground conditions last spring and late housing this winter, coupled with Brexit preparations in 2020 and higher feed costs in the second half of 2021 are all possible contributors to the reduction.

However, more can be done to reduce these figures and while we won’t feed the national herd from the Irish tillage sector alone, we can strive to increase the amount of Irish grain in our drinks industry and promote the use and value of Irish grain in animal feed in order to improve our sustainability credentials.

This can in turn help to increase tillage area, which research is now showing can be carbon positive.