This milestone, reached ahead of schedule, eliminates the company’s needs to import barley – reducing carbon emissions and helping towards improving food security, while also championing British agriculture.

Explorer contracts now available for harvest 2021.

Budweiser’s UK breweries at Magor in South Wales and Samlesbury in Lancashire produce more than 17 million bottles and cans of Budweiser each week alone. Prior to 2014, Budweiser imported 100% of barley for British-brewed Budweiser, as the type of high-protein malting barley required for brewing the beer was not traditionally growing in Britain. In 2014, a collaboration between Agrii, Viterra UK Ltd (previously Glencore Agriculture UK Ltd), Crisp/Boortmalt and AB InBev led to the introduction of Explorer barley to the UK. Explorer is a continental variety of barley with the right quality traits at the higher nitrogen levels required for Budweiser’s famous recipe. The collaboration began as a pilot with Agrii, using Explorer barley grown on 8 farms, which illustrated to AB InBev that they could reliably source the barley of the right quality they needed from the UK. There are now more than 300 farmers growing barley for Budweiser in the UK, covering more than 6000 hectares of British farms and producing 85,000 tonnes of barley each year.

Contracts are now available for the 2021 Explorer harvest, and Viterra UK Ltd are offering a minimum premium for the first time. Movement terms are flexible, with sampling and movement being well supported. Explorer is now tried and tested, with a carefully researched agronomy programme that has been fine-tuned through Agrii trials over the 7 years of work with AB InBev and other partners. Growers are supported throughout the year with the latest agronomy advice and updates.

Find out more here

What do some of our growers have to say?
“Having grown Explorer spring barley since 2015, we have found that its ability to come out of the ground running, and excellent competitiveness, have allowed us to establish a very useful spring crop on heavy Northamptonshire soils. The backup from Agrii gives us the confidence to commit up to 1/3 of our annual cropping to Explorer showing significant improvements in the control of blackgrass whilst still providing respectable margins. The fact that we are part of a group able to supply 100% of the Explorer needed for UK production of Budweiser from British farms is great for British agriculture, and makes me proud to be part of this industry.”
Nick Paton, Wakefield Estate

“I grow Explorer because it allows me to achieve a premium and control blackgrass on my heavy land.”
Chris Richardson, CW Richardson and Sons, Lincolnshire

If you’d like to find out more about the contracts available for harvest 2021, please get in touch with your usual Agrii or Viterra contact for more details, or contact:
The Agrii Seed Desk on 01277 898202, email info@agrii.co.uk, or
Viterra on 01844 261261, email thame.origination@viterra.com