The Saigon Beer Beverages Company (Sabeco) started on December 25 the construction of a brewery with a capacity of 100 million litres per year in Ho Chi Minh City's suburban Cu Chi district, Vietnamese media communicated.

The project was launched in the presence of Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, Industry Minister Hoang Trung Hai and leaders of HCM City. Prime Minister Phan Van Khai pressed the button on construction equipment to kick off the project.

Sabeco is investing about VND 1.9 trillion (US$119 million) into the 50ha project. The new brewery, Sai Gon-Cu Chi, will be equipped with the most state-of-the-art German brewing technology by German beverage specialist and contractor company Krones, under an engineering-procurement-construction contract (EPC).

The first batch of beer is expected to be produced about 18 months later in June 2007. In the immediate future, HCM City will allocate 10 ha for the 50-ha project in 2006.

Speaking at the ground-breaking ceremony, PM Khai said that producing 100 million litres of beer is the annual capacity of the project in its first phase, which will be increase in the second phase to 1 billion litres a year to provide not only for the domestic market, but also for export.

Beer sales in Poland are forecast to increase by 4.5% in 2005. And the large beer-producing groups increase their share of the market year by year. This year the leading beer manufactures are Kompania Piwowarska, owned by SABMiller, which controls 40% market share, Zywiec Group (owned by Heineken), with 30% market share, and the Carlsberg Group, with 15% market share.

In the past few years, the number of small brewers in Poland decreased from 100 to 50. One growth segment in the Polish beer market is the restaurant with an on-site brewery. Production of beer at such outlets totals about 2,000 hectolitres per year at present.

Ochakovo Brewery, one of the major breweries in Russia, increased exports of its drinks a tentative 57% to 4.28 million liters in 2005, Interfax announced on December 27.

The release says "Ochakovo specialists attribute this result to [the company's] entrance onto the markets of a number of new countries, expanding the assortment of products delivered, high marketing activity and advertisement support for its brands abroad."

Ochakovo began exporting its drinks to two former Soviet countries in 2003, the release says. The company now exports its goods to Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Abkhazia, Israel, Turkey, Britain and Spain.

Japanese beer maker, Asahi Breweries Ltd. may report a 10 % decline in operating profit for the current business year because of a decline in beer sales, the Nihon Keizai newspaper has recently reported.

The Tokyo-based company expects a group operating profit, or sales minus the cost of goods sold and administrative expenses, of 91 billion yen ($775 million) for the year that ends Dec. 31. That would be 10 billion yen lower than the company's most recent forecast. Sales may decline 1 percent to 1.43 trillion yen, the paper said. The stock slipped 24 yen, or 1.6 percent, to 1,470, Bloomberg posted on December 28. (Prices are as of the 3 p.m. close of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on December 27).

In July-October 2005 United Kingdom exported 93,489 tonnes (-38.6% year-on-year) of malt of which 9,041 tonnes to EU countries and 84,448 tonnes to non-EU countries, according to HGCA figures published on December 20.

In October 2005 UK exported 17,448 tonnes (-53.6% yoy) of malt of which 4,299 tonnes of malt to Japan; 1,562 to Malaysia; 1,098 to Vietnam; 1,174 tonnes to Tanzania; 2,479 tonnes to Thailand; 1,380 to Ireland. In October 2004 UK exported 37,639 tonnes of malt.

In July 2005-October 2005 UK exported 93,489 tonnes of malt versus 152,327 tonnes last year. The largest shipments were made to Japan 25,788 tonnes; to Nigeria 11,593 tonnes; to Russia 2,173 tonnes; to Thailand 13,303 tonnes; to Ireland 3,982 tonnes; to Netherlands 3,702 tonnes; to Malaysia 3,544 tonnes; to Tanzania 4,746 tonnes; to Canada 1,104 tonnes; to Brazil 931 tonnes; to China 400 tonnes; to Israel 1,368 tonnes; to Jamaica 2,142 tonnes; to Philippines 976 tonnes; to South Korea 1,481 tonnes; to Trinidad & Tobago 2,871 tonnes; to USA 2,045 tonnes and to Vietnam 4,399 tonnes.

ABB Grain Ltd has reviewed its gross barley pool indicators for 2005/2006 and has reduced its malting barley estimate by A$3/tonne, to A$190/tonne* in South Australia, Victoria and East Coast. The feed barley estimate remains unchanged at A$165/t.

The indicator prices for Victorian growers who contracted to the No.1 pool which closed on October 31 are A$195/t for malting barley and A$170/t for feed.

ABB’s General Manager Marketing, Nigel Officer, said that the reduction reflected the present uncertainty about the eventual final split between malt and feed barley.

“Chinese demand for malting barley has been covered for the time being and, at this stage, there is not expected to be any further demand in China until maybe March or April 2006,” Mr Officer said. “However, ABB is shipping considerable feed barley now and in the months ahead so this has enabled us to maintain the gross pool estimate for feed at its current rate.”

Mr Officer said the longer term prospects for the Chinese market remained good with only about 30% of its malting barley needs so far covered.

* A further $5/tonne premium also applies for Baudin and Sloop malting varieties, although this season is the last in which this premium will apply.