A ship is currently loading in Vancouver with western Canadian barley destined for the rice bowls of Japan, part of a growing new market developed by the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB).

The cargo of 8 000 tonnes of Legacy barley, a six-row malting variety, will partly be used as a rice extender for human consumption. The CWB has also been successful in sales of barley for shochu, a distilled alcoholic beverage made from two-row barley. The shochu market, which purchased 5 000 tonnes of Canadian barley for the first time earlier this year, had previously been supplied exclusively by Australia.

"This is a promising new market for the expansion of barley sales from Western Canada to Japan," said Bill Spafford, CWB vice-president of sales and marketing. "It highlights the value of relationships built through the efforts of our sales and product development experts and our industry partners, including Prairie farmers themselves."

Over the past few years, the CWB has cultivated a relationship with Zenbakuren, a federation of Japanese barley processors who span a wide range of barley users. It followed a collaborative research project involving the CWB, the Canadian Grain Commission’s Grain Research Laboratory, the University of Saskatchewan and Zenbakuren members. The project examined pearling qualities of various Canadian barley varieties to explore their suitability as rice extenders and for other food uses in Japan.

In September 2005, Zenbakuren representatives visited the CWB and toured the CGC laboratory and the facilities of the Canadian International Grains Institute, which is a market development training centre supported by the CWB. The Japanese visitors also toured barley farms harvesting Legacy barley in Saskatchewan and the U of S Crop Development Centre.

"The Japanese are very impressed with the quality of our barley," Spafford said. "For many years, the CWB has supplied six-row barley to the Barley Tea Processors in Japan. We are very pleased to be able to expand the opportunities for barley sales in this valuable market."

Controlled by western Canadian farmers, the CWB is the largest wheat and barley marketer in the world. As one of Canada's biggest exporters, the Winnipeg-based organization sells to over 70 countries and returns all sales revenue, less marketing costs, to Prairie farmers.