Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organisation (CSIRO) said on Friday it had sold 70 tonnes of the new
Kebari barley to Germany's largest brewer Radeberger, which has
produced a beer to be sold in local supermarkets.
"Gluten-free barley will be highly sought after, with European
brewers particularly interested," said John O'Brien, a brewer of
gluten-free beer in Melbourne.
Gluten-free is one of the world's fastest growing consumer trends
with the market expected to grow more than 10 percent a year until
2020 to be worth $7.59 billion, a 2015 report by MarketsandMarket
estimated.
European drinkers, already among the world's largest consumers of
beer per capita, have embraced gluten-free more than other regions,
brewers said, with several large manufacturers releasing gluten-free
brands.One of the problems brewers have faced in making gluten-free
beer without barley, or barley with the gluten stripped out, is that
beer drinkers often complain it doesn't taste like traditionally
brewed beer.
"A true gluten-free barley variety is a true game changer, there is
going to be a massive market for the product," said Phin Ziebell, an
agribusiness economist at National Australia Bank.
While the new "gluten-free" Kebari barley actually contains minute
amounts of gluten, the CSIRO said it had 10,000 times less gluten
than traditional strains, or about 5 parts of gluten per million,
well below the World Health Organization's (WHO) 20 parts per
million for classification as a gluten-free grain.
Barley is primarily used for animal feed and alcohol production and
the development of a "gluten-free" barley is expected to boost
Australia's ability to capitalize on the growing global gluten-free
market.
"As it expands, certainly some growers will benefit, this will be a
premium grain," said Phil Larkin, research manager for healthy
cereals at CSIRO.
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The new "gluten-free" barley is part of Australia's push to become
Asia's delicatessen, supplying premium agricultural products like
finger limes, olive oil, honey, wagyu beef and organic baby food to
the region's growing middle class.
While the diagnosis of gluten-related disorders such as coeliac
disease has increased, the majority of consumer growth in the sector
has come from non suffers.
However, gluten-free beer has seen only small gains, curbed by
differing global standards of what is considered gluten-free. The
United States plans to tighten requirements on manufacturers of
gluten-free beer to prove their claims.
Kebari barley is not a product of genetically modified farming, but
a decades program of breeding out the gluten by cross-breeding low
gluten barley varieties, said the CSIRO.
Production of the new strain of barley, which has been patented by
CSIRO, will be strictly controlled within Australia, limiting farmer
access to seeds, in order to prevent cross contamination, said the
government-funded scientific body.
(Reporting by Colin Packham; Editing by Michael Perry)
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