Heineken closes partnership to purchase Brazilian malt

The Heineken group, the second-largest brewer in the country, signed a 10-year contract with Cooperativa Agrária to buy Brazilian malt beginning in 2023. To meet demand, the cooperative will invest more than R$ 1 billion in a new malting plant to be built in the Campos Gerais region (PR).

According to Heineken, the domestic purchase comes to meet the growing demand of the business. “This initiative will avoid the need to import additional malt,” said Carlos Eduardo Garcia, purchasing director for the Heineken group.

The company does not reveal how much of the malt production is currently domestic but explains that most of the barley (the main raw material for malt) used is still imported. “With this project, we are going to double the amount of national barley,” stated Garcia.

Industry sources claim that about two-thirds of the barley used for malting beer in the Brazilian market is still imported. The new malting project in partnership with Heineken is led by Agrária, from Guarapuava (PR), and unites several barley-producing cooperatives in Paraná: Bom Jesus (Lapa), Capal (Arapoti), Castrolanda (Castro), Coopagrícola (Ponta) Grossa), and Frisia (Carambeí).

The graph below was compiled using DataLiner data and shows a history of Brazilian malt imports and exports since 2019:

Brazilian Malt Import and Export (HS 1107) | Jan 2019 to Apr 2021 | WTMT

Graph source: DataLiner  (To request a DataLiner demo click here)

The start of malting activities is scheduled for 2023. The factory should produce 240,000 tons of malt annually – a volume that today represents 15% of national production – and is expected to generate more than one thousand direct and indirect jobs.

Source: Valor Econômico

To read the full original article, access the link below:

https://valor.globo.com/empresas/noticia/2021/06/17/heineken-fecha-parceria-para-compra-de-malte-brasileiro.ghtml

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