| | This value-added market provides growers with a higher return from a crop they grow already.
The enjoyment of shochu, a distilled beverage made from grain, has been part of Japanese culture for 500 years. Over the last few years, this highly traditional drink has been made from a very un-traditional source: Alberta-grown barley.
According to Bill Chapman, Crop Business Development Specialist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD), Rahr Malting Canada out of Alix, Alberta shipped 10,000 tonnes of shochu barley to Japan last year and expects to meet or beat that level in 2009.
Shochu is a good example of an industry-government approach to overseas market development. The effort began a few years ago, when ARD brought together a team made up of the Alberta Crop Industry Development Fund, Rahr Malting, the Alberta Barley Commission (ABC) and ARD itself.
Through ongoing communications and several visits to Japan, the group -- led by ABC General Manager Mike Leslie -- succeeded in introducing Alberta barley to Sanwa Shuruii, whose Itichiko brand of shochu is considered a market leader.
Under the direction of Darcy Kirtzinger, ABC’s Research and Policy Manager, the team set up a commercialization project to determine which varieties of Alberta barley were best able to meet the standards of shochu distillers. Several new un-registered lines were included in the test under the direction of Dr. Patricia Juskiw, Two-Row Barley Breeder with ARD’s Field Crop Development Centre (FCDC). Dr. Darcy Driedger, Food Scientist with ARD at Brooks, is now completing pearling trials.
“Sometimes, it takes a really exotic variety to meet this kind of specialized need,” says Chapman, “but not in this case. We found that the AC Metcalfe variety has the right kernel hardness, starch content and quality for pearling that makes it an acceptable product for shochu.”
Just because the preferred variety is familiar, that doesn’t mean growing barley for shochu is a slam-dunk. To be viable for shochu, the barley must be seeded first in May and harvested early in August at 18% moisture, then aerated or dried down to 13.5% moisture. For this extra care, growers can market their shochu barley as malt.
During 2008, the shochu team ran demonstration trials at Killam, Westlock and Falher, with local applied research groups in conjunction with FCDC. The Centre is also working on shochu-specific barley calibrations for Near InfraRed Spectroscopy technology to increase efficiency of selections.
Dr. Iwami-Sanwa Shuruii, Mr. Masuda-Itochu with Dr. Jim Helm at the Field Crop Development Centre in Lacombe.
To Chapman, this is all part of the process of ensuring that Japan’s shochu distillers get the quality, consistency and volume they need.
“Producers are looking at this as a new value chain market for quality barley,” he says. “They can increase their returns per acre without increasing their risk or cost per acre, and it’s a crop they already grow well. Shochu might not be a huge opportunity for thousands of people, but for 50 to 100 growers, it’s a very nice option.”
For more information on opportunities in shochu barley, please contact Bill Chapman by phone at 780-674-8258 (dial 310-0000 for toll free) or by email to bill.chapman@gov.ab.ca. |
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