The Irish Grain Growers (IGG) group has called on Irish Distillers, Guinness, farmers and farm organisation leaders to oppose any cut to contracted malting barley contracts this season.

The call comes in response to last week’s news that Boortmalt intends to reduce its intake of contracted malting barley this season due to lower demand for malt as a result of COVID-19.

The group describes this decision as premature and hasty.

“Trends may change, while we recognise that pubs, restaurants and hotels have shut, it must also be noted that sales at off-licences and supermarkets have risen sharply with no dip in whiskey production reported,” the IGG said in a statement to the Irish Farmers Journal.

Crops in the ground

IGG have insisted that full contracts, determined by seed supply, must be accepted in 2020. They question the maltsters delay in informing growers of impending cuts. In many cases the announcement came just after growers finished planting their malting barley crop for the year.

The timing of this announcement will negatively impact grower’s ability to sell surplus grain as information suggests that barley prices are under pressure at present, the group stated.

Imports

“Before contracts are cut Boortmalt need to come clean on how much imported grain they have in stock or purchased that is displacing Irish Grain,” the statement reads.

They said that farmers will not tolerate grain being imported when they are being told their grain is not wanted.

In a situation like this, all options should be on the table in a transparent matter, instead of transferring all the risk directly to growers.

Update: response from Irish Distillers

Since publishing this article on 29 April, Irish Distillers have issued this response:

"At Irish Distillers, we source Irish-grown malted and unmalted barley. In fact, much of our barley comes from within a 100-kilometre radius of Middleton Distillery in Cork. In the very rare event that, having exhausted all avenues to acquire Irish barley, we cannot source the required volume for quality or operational reasons, then and only then do we allow imported barley to be used.

“We continue to work closely with our grain suppliers, who we have longstanding relationships with, to improve quality, efficiencies and sustainability and our primary focus is to secure the reliability and sustainability of our grain sourcing in Ireland.”