Australia & China: Emerald Grain ships first batch of Westminster barley to China maltsters

Australia’s Emerald Grain has made its first bulk shipment of Westminster barley, Weekly Times Now reported on September 26.

The company loaded 22,000 tonnes of the variety last week on to the Star Planet bound for China.

According to Melbourne Port Terminal manager Murray Wilkinson, the Westminster variety was part of a 54,000-tonne shipment of barley to a large Chinese maltster.

The shipment also included Gairdner and "fair average quality" barley - the latter a mix of lower quality grades which only just germinated in the malting process.

Westminster was developed in the UK and brought into Australia in 2006 through PGG Wrightson's link with French breeding company Limagrain.

It has gradually replaced gairdner as the major malting variety in the Western District, accounting for about 70 per cent of barley plantings this season.

Emerald Grain's commodity and trading manager Christian Norgard said Westminster was developed as a distilling variety for making whisky due to its high diastatic power.

The diastatic power is the enzymatic power in the malt needed to break down starches into fermentable product.

Mr Norgard said Australian brewers preferred malt with lower diastatic power.

Chinese brewers had low levels of malt in their brews and preferred ingredients with high diastatic power.

Emerald Grain has been segregating Westminster at its Werneth and Lake Bolac storages for sale into Asian markets.

The Westminster barley would be processed into malt by the large Chinese maltster before being distributed to brewers in China and southeast Asia.

Emerald Grain invited some Western District growers to watch the loading of their grain on to the Star Planet.

27 September, 2013