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"Adeptus":2ohakyyr wrote: I wonder do they get more for other beers?[/quote:2ohakyyr]
By the look of the article, Diagio dont buy the malt off the farmers but from Greencore instead. So I suppose there is a going rate for malted barley and thats what everyone pays...
I understand why the farmers feel they deserve more for their barley, but seeing as Diagio don't buy from the farmers it seems a bit strange (like picking on shoppers cos the Brennans are only paying 1 cent for a loaf of breads worth of wheat)
One of my cousins was telling me that one year it cost more to harvest his crop of than he got for it, which seems a bit mad, but there you go. The EU Agricultural policy was supposed to take the ups and downs out of the market but that only led to overproduction and inflated prices. Perhaps when everyone is growing biofuels the prices of commodities will go back up...

Sorry, that was an attempt at sarcasm. If they are "blaming" Guinness, does it mean they did the maths and other brewers are paying 2c, so they're ok? <!-- s;) --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s;) --> Maybe they want Guinness to pay more to Greencore for the malt so Greencore will pass it on the the Farmers.

What with market forces and all that stuff, it's all too complicated for me <!-- s:D --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_biggrin.gif" alt="" title="Very Happy" /><!-- s:D -->

They buy un-malted barley from then directly, but weather is going form malting or roasting malted barely is always paid and a much higher premium to feed barely as it produce lower yields.


Guinness want to drop the unmated barely from around 205 euro/ton to around 180 this year, even with a world shortage

As Greencore's biggest customer for barley I would be very surprised if they are paying the going rate. Big brewers tend to lock raw material costs into long term contracts to avoid any nasty surprises. This helps insulate them against the recent malt & hop increases which have had much more of an effect on smaller brewers who buy on demand.

Diageo as usual are in a dominant position and their actions may well decide whether barley is still grown here for brewing in the future. The price paid to farmers will have an effect on whether it is viable or whether they diversify into biofuels for example.

&amp;quot;TheBeerNut&amp;quot;:bkthpdt4 wrote: Without any context, what are we supposed to think is reasonable: 2c? 26c? €1?

Or are we just meant to go "Ooo, 1c isn't very much. No farmer can live on 1c. Naughty Diageo"?[/quote:bkthpdt4]

I think the context is the overall cost of the pint. If the principle raw ingredient (excluding water, for the pedant fans) is only 0.25% of the cost of the pint (assuming a €4 pint) it makes the claims that Diagio are making as regards increased raw material costs as justification for an increase in their prices look a bit spurious.

Even if malt prices were to double, which is extremely unlikely in the short term, it would only justify a 1c increase in the cost to the customer.

Methinks that a bit of profit taking by Guinness is going on.

&amp;quot;Poc&amp;quot;:30ug2nd5 wrote: I think the context is the overall cost of the pint. If the principle raw ingredient (excluding water, for the pedant fans) is only 0.25% of the cost of the pint (assuming a €4 pint) it makes the claims that Diagio are making as regards increased raw material costs as justification for an increase in their prices look a bit spurious.

Even if malt prices were to double, which is extremely unlikely in the short term, it would only justify a 1c increase in the cost to the customer.

Methinks that a bit of profit taking by Guinness is going on.[/quote:30ug2nd5]Well yes, of course there is. But isn't it a bit simplistic to think the wholesale price of a pint consists of raw ingredients + profit? There's all the overheads and marketing and product support and probably much much more that goes into running something the size of Diageo, rather than just malt in one end, stout out the other.