Next year, producer Edenilson Luiz Martincoski, from Ponta Grossa, in Campos Gerais, intends to dedicate half of the area to barley on the 300-hectare property. Currently, he allocates 20% of winter crops to cereals. Working with beer grain for five years, Martincoski is excited about the future installation of a malting plant in the region, the result of a joint investment by six cooperatives (Bom Jesus, in Lapa; Capal, in Arapoti; Castrolanda, de Castro; Coopagrícola, from Ponta Grossa; Frísia, in Carambeí; and Agrária, from Guarapuava) which should increase demand for the grain in the region. “Expectations are high,” he reveals.
In all the years he cultivated the cereal, Martincoski obtained a good standard of grain quality, which guaranteed profits from the commercialization of the production. “When barley is planted, the intention is to make 100% of the production go to the malthouse. If you achieve good germination, you will get greater reimbursement for the quality of the grain,” he explains.
Until then, its production was sent to the Agrária malthouse, located in the Entre Rios district, in Guarapuava, which currently responds to all barley demand in the State. The production is intended for the manufacture of brewing malt, supplied to all breweries in Brazil. “From the small brewer to large companies like Ambev and Heineken”, says the cooperative’s commercial manager, Jeferson Caus. With a production of 360 thousand tons of malt per year, it is the largest malthouse in Latin America, which meets around 30% of the beer industry's demand in Brazil.
With investments of R$1,5 billion, the new malt factory, which should be installed by 2023 in the Campos Gerais region, should change the barley map in Paraná (see the graph on page 8). Today production is concentrated in the Central region, around the Agrária malthouse. The expectation with the new venture is to produce 240 thousand tons of malt per year and generate 1 thousand direct and indirect jobs.
To handle this volume, it will be necessary to promote the production of raw materials in the region. According to Caus, there are several strategies to encourage the planting of barley to supply the new malt factory. “It’s a series of factors, in addition to price. Today we are already promoting production in Campos Gerais. We will have to double it, but it is a small number in relation to the potential area”, he assesses.
To be used in the manufacture of malt, barley must meet a series of quality requirements. In the case of Agrária, ten criteria are taken into account, such as grain size, protein percentage, presence of mycotoxins, germination power, among others.
The remuneration also has to be interesting to encourage the producer to meet these standards and – more than that – to encourage him to choose the grain as a winter option, to the detriment of wheat. Generally, the price of barley is defined taking into account the price of the product in Argentina and also that of wheat on the Chicago Stock Exchange.
“Domestic barley cannot be more expensive than imported barley. Parity is one of the criteria in pricing”, explains Caus.
According to Agrária's commercial manager, the additional volume of malt that will be produced in Paraná should not bring down the price of the product. “Today the Brazilian malt market is 1,7 million tons. If we produce [together the Agrária malthouse and the new one] 600 thousand tons, there could be four more similar malthouses that would not supply the market. We compete with imported products”, says Caus.
The expansion of the market for barley from Paraná should change the map of winter crops. Today, wheat is the main crop, which makes Paraná the largest national producer. For comparison purposes, in the last harvest in Paraná, wheat occupied 1,1 million hectares, while barley only 67 thousand hectares. On the other hand, the evolution of the area destined to beer cereal has been growing visibly in the State.
“Barley production has been gaining ground, especially since 2016. Among the main brewing centers in the State, the Central-Eastern region stands out, going from 22 thousand tons in 2009 to 56 thousand tons in 2019”, highlights Ana Paula Kowalski, technician from the Technical and Economic Department (DTE) of the FAEP/SENAR-PR System.
In the case of producer Guilherme Frederico de Geus Filho, from Tibagi, wheat and barley have lived together for more than ten years in a crop rotation system that also includes oats. “Year by year we are trying to increase the barley area. Now we will have more security when planting”, says the member from Friesland.
The expectation of the cooperatives involved in the new venture is to reach 100 thousand hectares of barley per year in Campos Gerais. In order for the cereal to find a favorable environment, one of the fronts of the project is the research into varieties adapted to the region's climate conditions, a mission that is the responsibility of the Agricultural Foundation for Agricultural Research (Fapa) and the ABC Foundation, an agricultural research body linked to Frísia, Castrolanda and Capal cooperatives.
According to Geus Filho, the value received for barley and wheat in the cooperative is very similar. “But if you have a quality premium, barley has a much better price,” he observes. Although the beer cereal has a higher production cost than bread, it has remunerated producers above the operating cost for at least four harvests, according to data from the Campo Futuro Program of the Brazilian Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA). According to the survey, in the last seven seasons the gross revenue from barley was much higher than that from wheat. Furthermore, according to the Tibagi producer, productivity would also be higher in barley. “The production ceiling is higher. It produces more than wheat, easily, 10% to 15%”, he assesses.
Other advantages of barley concern its agronomic behavior. According to Embrapa Trigo researcher, Aloísio Vilarinho, the crop is more rustic than other winter crops in terms of water needs. “Last year, when there was a drought, it didn’t compromise production. And the quality was up there”, he points out.
According to the expert, a concern that should be on producers' horizons is soil care, since barley does not tolerate acidic soils. “The crop is subject to fungal diseases such as powdery mildew and foliar diseases. You also have to be careful about Fusarium head blight, which occurs at the end of the cycle, and can make the grain unviable for both animal and human consumption [beer making]”, says Vilarinho.
According to producer Edenilson Martincoski, from Ponta Grossa, the cereal also produces excellent straw that later converts into organic matter, protecting and enriching the soil. “To make a profit from barley you have to plan, hire a good agronomist, do everything correctly”, he concludes.
To transform barley into malt, it is often said that the grain needs to “be alive”, that is, it needs to have germination power for the process to be successful. Once the different varieties of barley have been segregated (there cannot be a varietal mixture for malt production), the grains are taken to a tank and wetted so that they begin to germinate. This phase explains the importance of a required germination rate of at least 95%.
In a temperature-controlled environment, the beans begin to sprout. In this process, each grain processes enzymes that will convert starch into sugars, which will later become the alcohol present in beer.
After sprouting, the grains are taken to a greenhouse with temperatures that can reach 80ºC, for drying and roasting. Depending on the variety chosen and the type of roasting, it is possible to produce different types of malt, such as Pale Ale, Munich and Vienna. In Paraná, the malthouse in the Guarapuava region has Pilsen-type malt as its flagship.
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