Some 25% of the beer AB InBev brews worldwide comes from Buenos Aires barley and malt, according to Maltería y Cervecería Quilmes. The company buys 1.2 million tonnes a year from 1,300 growers and in 2025 exported more than 370 million dollars.
One in four beers that AB InBev, the world's largest brewing company, produces globally originates in Argentina and, more precisely, in the province of Buenos Aires. That was the message from Diego Caponi, Agribusiness manager at Maltería y Cervecería Quilmes (owned by AB InBev), during a field day held in Tres Arroyos, where the company hosted many of the 1,300 growers who plant some 280,000 hectares of malting barley under contracts with grain elevators and cooperatives.
"One in four beers we sell in the world is made with barley and malt from the province of Buenos Aires, which shows the potential of our local production and the importance of continuing to invest in developing an increasingly competitive, efficient and sustainable chain," Caponi said.
"This milestone represents the coordinated work between the farming sector, the technical teams and industrial development," he added, and stressed that one of the most outstanding indicators for the business is the 92% acceptance rate, which means that almost all of the barley received qualifies as malting barley.
This result, Caponi assured, stems from the technical capacity of Argentine growers and from the company's own infrastructure support, made up of two seed plants that ship 27,000 tonnes of varieties to cover national planting. The company also has a team of 300 plant breeders, agronomists and technicians dedicated to developing new malting barley varieties in line with market quality requirements.
With more than 50 years of history, the Malting Barley Research and Development Center in Tres Arroyos has developed twenty barley varieties that today account for around 70% of the area planted to the crop in Argentina. Among the most recent advances are Malkia and Florence, and the company expects to launch two new varieties in 2027.
Of the 1.2 million tonnes of malting barley the company buys each year, the volume splits evenly between domestic industrial consumption and malt exports, mainly to Brazil. At the regional scale, the group's infrastructure consists of six malting plants —two in Argentina, two in Uruguay and two in Brazil— with capacity to process more than one million tonnes of malt that supply the various breweries across South America.
In 2025, Maltería y Cervecería Quilmes exported more than 370 million dollars and topped 970,000 tonnes of barley and malt. For 2026, the company plans to export around 600,000 tonnes of barley and between 220,000 and 330,000 tonnes of malt, consolidating its presence in markets such as Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia and Chile, and it broadened its reach with the export of two barley vessels destined for India.
The company has two malting plants of its own that produce a total of 470,000 tonnes and employ 290 people on a permanent basis, both located in the province of Buenos Aires. The value chain also extends to Patagonia, where it has a farm of almost 68 hectares in General Fernández Oro, Río Negro, dedicated to hop growing for more than 50 years.
The malting barley business went through a genuine "rollercoaster" this year. "At the beginning of May we were in the eye of the storm because fertilizers were very expensive and grain prices had fallen a lot. In that context, we came out with a stimulus price so the grower's margin would work," Caponi said. Once the crop was planted, grain prices began to recover while the value of urea deflated, which improved the expected margin and triggered pricing agreements.
To date, the volume priced stands at 45% of the supply committed by contract. "Farm businesses are being very cautious: they don't want to commit more grain because they have to get through an El Niño year," he explained, referring to the excessive rains that can affect the brewing attributes of barley.
"We are always close to growers and, when force majeure situations prevent generating volume or a crop with the required quality, we can make commercial terms more flexible. When it is necessary, we do it, and that sets us apart from the export channel," he stressed.
Barley, together with water, hops and yeast, is one of the four main ingredients in beer, and its characteristics are decisive in achieving different profiles of flavor, aroma, color and body. "We are an agribusiness because our business starts in the field. The quality of the ingredients we produce together with our growers is essential to brewing beers that stand out for their characteristics and their flavor," Caponi said.
