Brewing in Argentina (part four)

We now move from beer itself to its principal ingredient: barley.

To put this into context, in the 19th century, large quantities of malting barley were exported from Chile to the UK. Becoming, along with the USA and the Middle East, one of the UK's main suppliers. Argentina is just next door and parts of it have a similar climate to Chile. So was Argentina also exporting malting barley? The short answer is, no.

The cultivation of barley in the Argentine has not been very successful, the quality of the crops being much depreciated by recurrent droughts and the ever-present devastating locusts. The area under cultivation in the province of Buenos Aires alone last year was estimated at 75,000 acres, yielding about forty bushels per acre. Argentina is both an exporter and importer of barley. It was in 1876 that the republic first began to export the cereal, beginning that year with a shipment of sixteen tons, and continuing to export through succeeding years up to 1895, when the exportations amounted to 8,990 tons. As the production increased Argentine purchases of foreign barley decreased from £9,168 in 1888 to £5,737 in 1897. The latter figure was, however, three times larger than the quantity imported in 1896, which was valued at only £1,901. This was due to the poor crops. Great Britain supplied £1,337 worth of barley; Germany £447; and the United States only £9 worth of the 1896 importation.
The Brewers' Journal vol. 35 1899, January 15th 1899, pages 46 - 47.

Argentina wasn't having a great deal of luck growing barley. And, while it was exporting barley, it wasn't of malting quality. And malting barley was still being imported.

The two largest brewers were involved in growing barley. But they still needed to import large quantities of malt. 

Both the Bieckert Brewing Company and the Quilmes Company are interested in barley-growing lands. The increase in the importations of barley last year, just referred to, would indicate that the quality of the barley being raised is not good enough for brewing requirements. If it were, so much of it as was wanted would be kept at home to save the import duty of two and a half centavos per kilogram (2,204 pounds) on cleaned and three-quarters of a cent per kilo on uncleaned barley. For the same reasons that apply to barley, malt is imported in considerable quantities, the value of the importations during last year amounting to £34,528. The importations during the preceding year amounted to £32,221, of which Germany supplied £31,987, Belgium £131, and Great Britain £105. The duty on malt is 10 per cent, ad valorem. The amount of hops purchased by the Argentine increased from £5,136 in 1895 to £6,713 in 1896, and during last year amounted to £6,701. Germany supplied £5,170 worth, while Belgium sent in the commodity to the value of £1,989. Great Britain supplied £145 worth. Hops pay a duty of 2.5 per cent, ad valorem.
The Brewers' Journal vol. 35 1899, January 15th 1899, pages 46 - 47.

There were three main foreign sources of brewing materials: Germany, Belgium and the UK. All supplying both malt and hops.

I'm slightly surprised that there was no attempt to cultivate hops in Argentina. As, unlike most of South America, some areas of the country do have suitable climatic conditions for the crop. Something which is now being taken advantage of. Earler this year, I judged IPAs brewed using Argentinian hops. Which was quite tricky. All the varieties being specific to Argentina, leaving me with no idea what they were supposed to taste like.