February, 2024.- More than 20,000 hectares will be planted with malting barley until 2030, throughout the country, generating around 175,000 jobs in the field, announced the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock, Danilo Palacios, during a tour he took this Monday through the Association’s lands. Virgen del Volcán, located in the Lloa parish, in the Quito canton.
This will allow the barley imports demanded by the brewing industry to be replaced by national production. “This is a historic day for agriculture in our country. We are showing that it is possible when there is the will of all the actors in the chain of power to develop the country,” said the Minister.
In Lloa, the Virgen del Volcán Association works together with Cervecería Nacional in the mechanized sowing of barley cultivation, under the Contract Sowing program, developed by the aforementioned company. The purpose is to generate adequate use of the field with sustainable practices.
Martín Espinosa, Legal & Corporate Affairs director of Cervecería Nacional, noted that: “At Cervecería Nacional we are proud of the positive impact that our Contract Planting project has generated. An outstanding example of this effect is the notable productive growth experienced by the Virgen del Volcán Farmers Association. In 2021, its productivity reached 1.4 tons per hectare, which rose to 4 tons per hectare in 2023. This only demonstrates the tangible success of our program that began in 2020.”
He stated that now the objective is for all imports of malting barley to be covered with the harvest of Ecuadorian farmers. “In collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, various farmers associations and our National Brewery team, we aspire to achieve this goal by 2030. Our vision is that all Ecuadorian beers, such as Pilsener and Club, are made exclusively with barley. cultivated by national hands in the long term.”
The National Brewery Contract Planting program allows malting barley producers to have a secure market for their production. Currently, the program has benefited 2,000 farmers, and generates 45 thousand indirect jobs.
Minister Palacios indicated that this is an articulated work between the different actors in the chain, for which the Ministry facilitates the processes, such as the importation of seed of the voyager variety.
“We created the New Ecuador together,” said Danilo Palacios, pointing out that the joint work between private companies, public institutions and producers provides favorable results for the entire barley production chain, in addition to strengthening agricultural mechanization and associativity.
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