Published on :
A fifth of the beers brewed in the world are made with French malt. But today the industry is calling for help: the energy costs needed to transform barley into malt are such that the competitiveness of blue-white-red malt is at stake.
Few people know it, but your beer has a one in five chance of having been made with French malt, obtained from barley grown in France. France exports 85% of the malt it produces, making it the world’s leading exporter, whether to Asia, Africa or South America.
But this first place, of which French maltsters are very proud, may be difficult to hold for much longer. Because the process of drying – malting – barley grains is a very energy-intensive operation. With costs that have doubled, at least, European and particularly French maltsters will inevitably have to be more expensive than their American or Australian competitors, impacted by an increase of around 30% only.
Quality is not everything
And even if French malt is renowned for its quality, and allows maximum productivity of breweries, “ at a certain price level, brewers risk putting quality aside Even if it means limiting the performance of their factories, fear the Malteurs de France, a union that brings together the three major players Boortmalt-Axéréal, Malteurope-Vivescia, and Soufflet In Vivo.
In recent months, the sector had already suffered from the increase in barley prices. But the trend was global and everyone was in the same boat. But the burden of grain processing costs, on the other hand, is unequal for maltsters. It depends in particular on government aid in the face of the energy crisis.
An industry that wants to be heard
But in France, they are far below what Germany offers for example to its industrialists, and above all they are conditioned on a loss of activity. “ You have to be dying to qualify for aid “Laments our interlocutor. French maltsters warn: if the malt sector is in difficulty, the whole barley sector is likely to suffer. 1.8 million tonnes of barley are processed each year in France to produce 1.5 million tonnes of malt.
As the market is in high demand, manufacturers do not have stocks on which they could rely while waiting for gas and electricity costs to come down. ” We are a volume market, with factories running from January 1 to December 31 “, explains Jean-Philippe Jélu, president of the maltsters of France.