New Delhi: Beer, whisky and flavoured alcoholic beverages could get cheaper this summer, with India relaxing import norms for malt barley from Australia, allowing more of it to enter the country.
Malt barley is the main ingredient in beer. To produce one litre of beer, 200 grams of malt is needed.
In December, India notified the World Trade Organisation (WTO) of new import conditions for Australian malt barley that will allow the import of the product even with phosphine fumigation. Before this, any import in India required all fumigation to be methyl bromide-based. However, this process is not suitable for malt barley, because it denatures the seed and impacts the malting process.
Denaturing is a process which takes away or alters the natural or molecular qualities of barley, thereby making it unfit for drinking.
“This relaxation was quite necessary as there is a huge gap in demand and supply of malt barley in India,” Pradeep Verma, adviser and techno-commercial associate at Weyermann Malts told ThePrint. “Eighty per cent of the barley production in India goes to livestock fodder diet. The import of malt barley from Australia will certainly comfort the breweries industry, which was struggling through a shortfall in demand and supply.” (THE PRINT)
