(Food-Beverage-News.Com, January 05, 2017 ) Barley is a versatile cereal grain with a rich nutlike flavor and an appealing chewy, pasta-like consistency. Its appearance resembles wheat berries, although it is slightly lighter in color. Sprouted barley is naturally high in maltose, a sugar that serves as the basis for both malt syrup sweetener. When fermented, barley is used as an ingredient in beer and other alcoholic beverages. Scientific studies has proven that barley has the ability to reduce the risk of many diseases, and to provide important health benefits.
Barley offers many of the same healthy vitamins and minerals as other whole grains. Barley is a major source of vitamin-c, carbohydrates, proteins, and fatty oils and hence finds a major application in the food industry. Conventionally, it is used as a food grain, natural sweetener, and as an ingredient for brewing beer. Barley malt is used in making alcoholic beverages.
The increase in the demand for barley malt from the alcoholic beverage sector is a major driving force behind the global Barley Market. The market is driven by the growing demand for convenience food products, clean label trends, wide range of applications in the food & beverage industry, and increasing demand for natural ingredients.
Rise in the health consciousness among the alcohol consumers has proven to be a major setback in the demand for barley malt. This has negatively impacted the global barley market. Pest & disease infestation in the barley cultivating field, declining soil fertility, disruptive change in the climate has also resulted in the decrease in the yield of barley.
Barley Market: Segmentation
The segmentation of the global barley market has been done on the basis of type, grade, end use, application and method of cultivation. On the basis of type, barley can be classified into- covered, hulless, two-row barley and six-row barley. Based on grade, it can be segmented into- malt grade, food grade & feed grade. On the basis of application, the segmentation can done as- food & beverages, animal feed, nutraceuticals, seed industry and pharmaceuticals. Lastly, on the basis of cultivation method, the barley beans has been classified as organic and inorganic.
Geographically, the barleymarket is segmented into seven regions which are ; North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and Japan
In crop year 2014-15, Australia was the leading producer of barley globally. Its primary trading partner was China, where it supplied major share of its produce. Other than China, Australia's top trading partners in 2014 were Japan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait
France and Ukraine were among the other main global suppliers of barley in 2014.
Barley Market: Key Players
Some of the key players across the value chain dominating this market are Axereal Group, Cargill, Incorporated, Grain crop Limited, Malteurop Group, Soufflet Group, Crisp Malting Group, Global Malt Gmbh & Co. Kg, Ireks Gmbh, Muntons Plc, Simpsons Malt Ltd.
