THE DIAGEO group has admitted it has imported malt from Britain for Guinness prompting an angry reaction from Irish malting grain growers.
Diageo and Irish malting barley growers have been at loggerheads for a number of years over the price the company pays for malting barley and last year there were a number of protests on the issue.
Gráinne Macken, Diageo head of corporate communications, confirmed Guinness had received a shipment of malt from the Crisp Malting Company in Norfolk last week.
She told the Irish Farmers' Journalmalt had been sourced outside Ireland only because the Irish market was unable to supply malt to meet the specific quality criteria.
Ms Macken went on to say 90 per cent of malt was sourced in Ireland and “our commitment in this regard is unchanged”.
The news malt is being imported from Britain has angered grain farmers who have recently lost 600 malt contracts to the Greencore company which recently sold its malting division to French company Boortmalt.
A spokesman for the growers rejected any suggestion Irish malt was below quality as stringent new quality controls were introduced last year. He said the decision by Guinness to import malt from abroad had “a lot more to do with price” than quality and using malt from Britain would damage the Irish image of Guinness worldwide.
It could also be linked, he said, to reports that the new owners of Greencore Malt planned to close one of the smaller malting plants in Athy.
The plant accounts for 25 per cent of the malt output of the company.