“Obolon” and “SUN Interbrew” were the incontestable leaders of the Ukrainian beer market following the first 5 months of 2006. Sales have shown a year-on-year grown of 30.22% for “Obolon”, 12.8% for “SUN Interbrew” and 7% for “Sarmat”, the companies released.

During the same period, “Obolon” has brewed 3.36 million hl of beer, increasing beer production by 24.2%. “Sarmat” amplified beer production by 18% up to 1.14 million hl of beer.

“SUN Interbrew” is the second brewing company in Russia and the largest brewer in Ukraine. Its local affiliates are “Desna” (Chernigov), “Rogan” (Kharkov) and “Yantari” (Nikolaev).

“Sarmat” clusters 5 local brewing companies. 99% of “Sarmat” shares are owned by “System capital management” from Donetsk.

Beer sales jumped by 16.5% month-on-month to 535,574 hectoliters in May, according to data released by the Union of Brewers in Bulgaria (UBB), Dnevnik communicated June 13.

The market expanded by 14.7% year-on-year in May. The local beer makers tallied sales of 1.65 mln hl for January-May 2006, up 16.6% year-on-year. The UBB data is inconclusive because it does not reflect the performance of locally-owned brewer Ledenika&MM.

Kamenitza AD, owned by Belgium's InBev, the world's biggest brewer by volume, had a marginal lead on Zagorka in May, moving 174,743 hectoliters versus 173,685 hectoliters for its Heineken-owned rival.

Zagorka, in turn, leads Kamenitza in the January-May sales rankings by 500 hectoliters.
Carlsberg Bulgaria is a solid third-placer both in the May and in YTD sales charts.

Analysts say that at first sight the world barley balance does not look bullish for the next crop year. Larger crops all over Europe and in North Africa will more than compensate for smaller crops in North America.

Nevertheless, there will be the firm markets of all other grains, lesser availability of feed wheat leading to larger barley consumption, excellent beef markets needing more feed barley in Canada and Australia.

Australia's new crop may become a major factor already in the weeks to come, unless weather conditions improve. Saudi-Arabia is reported to have imported more than 7.5 million t of feed barley in 2005/06, and will need at least the same amount next year. So far official S/D's had put the Saudi demand at maximum 6.5 million t per year.

The larger crop figures come from Spain, Russia and Ukraine, where we also expect a large increase of domestic consumption. And by planting time of winter grains in Europe and North America one may see an effect of expected lower barley crops in 2007. Therefore it is likely that barley markets will follow the firm trend of other grains in the new crop year.