The Canadian Malting Barley Technical Centre (CMBTC) announced it will continue to receive funding from prairie barley commissions. This follows the end of the Western Canadian Deduction (WCD) check-off back in July.

The funding comes from Alberta Barley, the Manitoba Wheat and Barley Growers Association, and the Saskatchewan Barley Development Commission.

Peter Watts, Managing Director of CMBTC, says they are pleased with the support they are receiving from the commissions.

"We do work on behalf of producers like promoting and testing new varieties of malting barley that are coming into the system once their registered. The CMBTC tests the varieties at a pilot scale, so we try to mimic commercial scale production facilities so we can provide useful information for end users."

The CMBTC had been receiving $0.03 per tonne of barley delivered to Canadian Grain Commission licensed companies over the past five years through the WCD check-off. The three barley associations have said they will continue to provide funding at similar levels to the previous check off.

"They see value in the association to promote Canadian malting barley in the international market place, and the value in terms of having these pilot scale processing facilities, which is unique in the world. There's no other country in the world that has a dedicated independent processing and evaluation facility for their malting barley value chain."

Canada is one of the world's largest producers and exporter of malting barley with sales revenues of $1 billion annually in Canada and internationally.

They've entered into an agreement for one year of support from the commissions, which will be reviewed when it comes up again next year.