Industry information suggests a positive outlook for UK spring malting barley: malting capacity is increasing; a leading UK variety now has strong overseas uptake; and there is an exciting line-up of new varieties in the pipeline.

Those were some of the key messages from a malting barley conference held near Thetford in Norfolk recently, organised by Syngenta.

Addressing farmer attendees, Tracy Creasy, Syngenta malting barley portfolio manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, said there is significant malting industry expansion occurring in the UK, but also in Europe.

Moreover, the UK is in a fortunate position of being one of the leading spring barley certified seed producing countries, she said, and the prominent UK variety Laureate, which accounted for nearly 62% of spring barley purchased for malting in England and Scotland in the latest-available data from 2023, has also grown in its European acceptance.

“In 2024 Laureate had a 27% market share in Europe,” explained Mrs Creasy. “Varieties that are in demand by end users in the UK and Europe offer UK growers greater end market potential.

“As well as its good malting quality and disease resistance, the widespread popularity of Laureate is also due to it being well-adapted to growing in different environments and seasons. This helps it to deliver consistent results.

“Consequently, adaptability plus other characteristics suited to modern farming – such as varieties that use nitrogen efficiently and excel in minimum cultivation systems – are firmly among our spring barley breeding targets. These are in addition to yield, quality and agronomics. We’re already making progress,” she added.

Turning to malting barley and supply and demand, Syngenta Seeds technical manager, Robert Jackson, said industry estimates suggest the 2025 UK spring barley area could be down by 13% from its high of 2024, when more was grown because prolonged rains prevented drilling of winter crops. On the demand side, he said UK maltster purchases from harvest 2025 are expected to be 1.9 million tonnes.

“We expect Laureate to be a leading UK variety again in 2025,” Mr Jackson said, “not least because it has performed consistently over the last eight years when the yields of some other spring malting barley varieties in trials have fallen. However, there are also now additional new promising varieties coming through for future years, such as SY Tennyson, SY Signet and SY Arrow.

“Like Laureate, SY Tennyson has full approval for brewing and malt distilling uses on the Malting Barley Committee (MBC) approved list of varieties for harvest 2025, but it has taken key malting quality characteristics for both markets to another level. Meanwhile, SY Signet has Provisional Approval 2 for brewing use on the MBC list, but a lot of eyes are on the potential dual-purpose variety, SY Arrow.

“Under test for brewing and malt distilling, SY Arrow takes yield on from Laureate while providing very high quality similar to SY Tennyson, and combining this with strong disease resistance. It’s also slightly earlier maturing than Laureate, which will help some growers with harvest, and like Laureate, has yielded consistently well.”