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Climate change threat looms over Belgium's traditional beer and chips

The range of Belgian beers is deliciously diverse...for now. - AP
The range of Belgian beers is deliciously diverse...for now. - AP

The future of two of Belgium's most beloved and iconic products, Belgian beer and frites, is under serious threat from climate change, it was warned on Thursday.

A report for Belgium’s National Climate Commission warned increasing global temperatures and droughts would hit potato crops and could force beer production to be slashed by as much as 40 percent.

Belgium has experienced “persistently mild winters”, recurring droughts and a “succession of hot summers, culminating in the unprecedented temperature extremes recorded during the summer of 2019”, the report said. It was written before this summer’s record-breaking temperatures.

In 2018, almost a third of Flanders’ potato crop was lost to a combination of a drought and a heatwave and temperatures are expected to increase in the future. The Dutch-speaking region of Belgium produces the majority of the country’s potatoes, which are used to make the famous chips.

Belgium is also one of the world’s leading exporters of frozen potato products. While the 2018 drought meant prices rose, large amounts of increasingly scarce water are needed for processing potatoes, especially frozen ones.

With higher average temperatures expected to come, even more water will be needed to grow, process and store the crop, the Brussels Times reported.

Water is vital for brewing Belgium’s vast selection of beers, which are a great source of national pride.

Barley for Belgian beer is often imported and supplies will depend on how badly producing regions are hit by climate change.

Global average losses of barley production could be as high as 17 per cent, according to some estimates. The report said Belgium could lose “several tens of per cent” of its supplies with beer production dropping by between 10 and 40 per cent.

Brewers of the traditional sour lambic beers like geuze and kriek, a cherry beer,  face an even more uncertain future.

After the wort is boiled it is exposed to airborne wild yeast and bacteria overnight before being casked. The process, one of the oldest forms of brewing still commercially available, only works when temperatures are cool enough for the yeast to thrive and for good bacteria to survive.

The report said that the season for brewing lambics could decline by as much as 10 per cent.