The festive opening of the Company’s newest brewery, Baltika-Novosibirsk, was held in the city of Novosibirsk, according to company’s press release, May 26. The new facility has the latest generation equipment from the industry’s best suppliers and can produce world-class products. The completed project represents an investment of 134 million Euros.

Anton Artemiev, President of Baltika Breweries, commented as follows: ‘Baltika-Novosibirsk is a 134-million Euro investment in innovation, capacity and quality. The project is significant both for Siberia and for the Company, given that it is the largest regional investment project in our entire history. The new brewery will result in a tax contribution of around 6 billion rubles to the regional budget during just the first 5 years of its operation.’

‘Green field’ construction of the plant made it possible to create a high technology enterprise and to locate optimally the production buildings and infrastructure taking into account experience of building modern new breweries in Europe. More than 745 new jobs were created.

The brewery’s production capacity of 4.5 million hectolitres of beer per year is assured by two brewing units, 16 fermentation tanks, 68 conical-cylindrical tanks, four filling lines (two PET-lines, one can line and one glass bottle line). A ...More Info

InBev has not yet begun merger talks with Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc but is still weighing an acquisition of the U.S. brewer, a source familiar with the situation said, according to Reuters, May 27.

The source also said the board of directors for Belgian brewer InBev has not yet voted on whether it will proceed with an overture to Anheuser, the No. 1 brewer in the United States with brands like Budweiser and Michelob.

InBev has not yet decided, the source said, whether it would look at acquiring other companies in the event an Anheuser deal falls through, as was reported over the weekend by the Financial Times.

Citing a person familiar with the situation, FT reported that InBev and SABMiller Plc have been holding informal discussions about a tie-up, but that the progress of those talks was stalled by SABMiller's plans to merge its U.S. operations with those of Molson Coors Brewing Co.

The beer industry is experiencing a wave of consolidation, with Scottish & Newcastle agreeing to be broken up by Carlsberg A/S and Heineken NV.

InBev, formed from the 2004 merger of Belgium's Interbrew with Brazil's AmBev, has a fraction of the U.S. market but has mature businesses in western Europe.

It is ...More Info

Czech breweries exported almost 800,000 hectolitres of beer in the first quarter of 2008, ten percent more year-on-year, Czech Beer and Malt Association chairman Jan Vesely said, according to CTK, May 23.

On the other hand, sales on the domestic market decreased by more than two percent to 3.38 million hectolitres. The aggregate output of 4.18 million hectolitres was therefore virtually the same as a year ago.

The decline in domestic sale was caused by cold weather and concerned tap beer only, said Vesely. Sale of bottled beer remained unchanged on the year.

Vesely said sale in April increased by five percent year-on-year thanks to weather, so breweries offset fully the first-quarter decline.

More than a third of Czech beer was sold in Germany where its sale rose by ten percent in the first quarter. Exports to Slovakia grew 20 percent and sales in Russia added more than a third.

Non-alcoholic beer sales increased by nearly 40 percent in the first quarter, but accounted just for about two percent of overall sales. A vast majority of Czech non-alcoholic beer is sold on the domestic market, with a negligible amount exported to Slovakia.

There are 48 industrial breweries in the Czech Republic, with the seven largest producing ...More Info

Brazilian group Schincariol has acquired the brand and non-manufacturing assets of Portuguese beer Cintra, in Brazil, for 39 million reais, the Brazilian press reported May 23.

The deal included the sale of the brand, the distribution network, formulas and materials at points of sale that belonged to Companhia de Bebidas das Américas (Ambev), according to financial newspaper Valor Económico.

These assets were acquired by Ambev, in November of last year, for US$10 million,, but the deal was not approved by the competition authorities.

The two Cintra factories, in the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, acquired in Marach of last year, for US$150 million, will remain in Ambev’s hands.

The sale of the assets to Brazilian group Schinacariol follows a ruling by the competition authority, CADE, a body linked to the Ministry of Justice.

According to the ruling, announced in January of this year, Ambev was authorised to buy the factories, but would have to sell the brand and distribution network that belonged to the Portuguese group.

Schincariol is the second largest beer group in Brazil, after Ambev and has a 13 percent share of the Brazilian drinks market.

AmBev, which was set up in 1999, is currently the largest private consumer goods company in ...More Info

German beer exports rose 4 per cent to 15.4 million hectolitres last year, with Italy remaining the biggest taker, the German brewers' magazine Brauwelt reported May 23.

After Italy, which imports 4.1 million hectolitres, came France and the United States, with 1.7 million hectolitres each.

Beer imports declined almost 13 per cent to 5.5 million hectolitres. Denmark is the largest exporter to Germany on 2.2 million hectolitres, followed by Belgium on almost 1.4 million and the Czech Republic on just under a million.

Asahi Breweries Ltd., Japan's top- selling beermaker, will expand its alliance with Belgium's InBev NV, importing more brands from the world's biggest brewer by sales, Bloomberg reported May 28.

Asahi will import a further six brands to Japan, including Stella Artois and Hoegaarden, the Tokyo-based company said in an e-mailed statement today.

The two companies may consider the joint procurement of raw materials, such as malt and hops, the Nikkei newspaper reported earlier, without saying where it obtained the information. Asahi also hopes to boost sales of its main Super Dry brand by using InBev's breweries overseas, the report said.

There have been no decisions to jointly procure raw materials or use InBev breweries overseas, Asahi spokesman Takayuki Tanaka said. Purchasing ingredients with InBev was a possibility in the future, he said.

Beer production in Ukraine increased 19.2% till 9.69 mil hl in the first four month of 2008, according to the media, May 27. Beer market was 19.7% higher and reached 8.5 mil hl.

Ukraine exported 1.13 mil hl of beer in Jan-Apr 2008, which is 17.8% more than a year ago. The imports have also grown almost 2.2 times and constituted 60 thousand hl.

According to the analysts, at the end of 2008 beer production will reach 36 million hectolitres while beer market will reach 32-33 mil hl.

There's "no way" the Conservative government can pass Bill C-46 before the House of Commons breaks for summer in mid-June, according to NDP MP Pat Martin, Resource News International reported May 26.

If Martin's correct, that means the Canadian Wheat Board's (CWB) barley marketing monopoly will definitely remain intact at least until the start of the 2008-09 crop year, which begins Aug. 1.

Federal Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz in early March announced he was introducing Bill C-46, legislation designed to end the CWB's single-desk barley marketing monopoly in Western Canada in time for the new growing season.

"There is no way on God's green earth that Bill C-46 is going to be passed for the start of the crop year as Minister Ritz committed," said Martin, the New Democrat who represents Winnipeg's downtown.

A spokesperson for the federal Conservative party said the bill has been put on the parliamentary agenda but added that does not necessarily mean it will be debated. It simply signals that it is one of the bills that could possibly come up for debate.

Even though C-46 has been added to the list of bills to be debated, Martin said May 23 that it's been placed in an "impossible low ...More Info

Barley prices continue to rule high on the back of huge demands from the overseas market, Business-Standard reported May 28. This is against earlier expectation that the prices will come down from Rs 1300 in the previous season to Rs 700-the level witnessed two seasons back.

Rising demand from exporters and the domestic malt industries have sent the barley market on a bullish trajectory. In less than a month, the near-month contract for barley has jumped by over 22 per cent to an all-time high of Rs 1,344 a quintal. Commodity market sources said that there was still room for a further rally of Rs 30-40 a quintal. The crop size for the current year is expected to be around 16 lakh tonnes, which will be 33 per cent more than the last year's 12 lakh tonnes. Marketmen had anticipated that prices would slip below Rs 1,000 a quintal-mark with higher output. According to market sources, such a demand is normally seen in October-November. However, this year as soon as the new crop came in March, high demand (mainly from overseas market) did not let the prices come down. ...More Info

Total yield of barley in Ukraine in 2008 is expected at the level of 8.9 mln tonnes with the average productivity of 20.6 c/ha, that exceeds the last year's result by 1.5 times and reach the average level of production for the last five years, according to the report of Anastasia Ivasenko, analyst of IA "APK-Inform", at the conference "Grain Forum 2008" in Yalta, AgriMarket reported May 27.

According to the expert's opinion, considerable growth of the total yield of barley conditions substantial increase of the total barley offer in 2008/09 season. Taking into account the carry-over stocks, that are estimated at the level of 362.000 tonnes, the total barley offer would total 9.3 mln tonnes. At that, in new season, the substantial increase of the total offer of this crop is expected- to 9.3 mln tonnes against 6.4 mln tonnes in 2007/08 season.

According to the forecast of A. Ivasenko, next season, the main importer of this crop- Saudi Arabia remains the main buyer of the Ukrainian barley.

ABB Grain Ltd, Australia's leading barley exporter and wheat export hopeful, said its first-half net profit rose 79 percent to A$33.6 million ($32.3 million), driven by higher grain receivals, according to Reuters, May 27.

This followed an 89.1 percent net profit fall to A$7.3 million in the full year to Sept. 30 because of drought. ABB's profit for half-year to March 31 last year had slumped by 58 percent to A$18.8 million.

ABB is Australia's largest barley exporter and has ambitions to become one of the country's major exporters of bulk wheat when the export system changes on July 1.

The international shortage of hops -- the ingredient that adds aroma, body and bitterness -- is causing prices of the agricultural commodity to soar, industry officials say, according to AFP, May 26.

The origins of the hops shortage are linked to an oversupply a decade ago of the agent that provides flavors in beer that range from fruity to woody, said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association.

The glut sent prices plunging and caused farmers to plant fewer acres to hops. That included hops growers in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, the states that produce the commercial supply of US hops.

At the same time, excess hops were converted to an extract to allow long-term storage and a supply that only now is being depleted despite the fact that production went below usage five years ago.

Add to that what Gatza and Washington-based hops broker Ralph Olson describe as today's global hops market, where weather and other conditions that affected hops harvests worldwide ramped up international competition.

"All the sudden last year, panic hit the street," said Olson, head of Hopunion, a leading supplier of hops to the craft brewing industry.

"It was, What do you mean you don't have hops? We want hops.' International brewers ...More Info

J. Potarzycki, W. Grzebisz Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Agricultural University, Poznań, Poland

Abstract
Malt barley production requires a technology increasing nitrogen use efficiency, because of a high sensitivity of barley total grain yield and quality parameters to external growth factors. In the conducted study an effect of two P fertilizers on the background of N application on total and technological grain yields were studied. The highest total grain yield was harvested on plots fertilized with 60 kg N/ha, irrespective of the P fertilizer type. However, the technological grain yield showed a high year-to-year variability; the highest was recorded in 2001 on the plot fertilized with 60 kg N/ha and the P-PAPR fertilizer. The N and S concentrations and N:S ratios in immature grains at harvest were used to evaluate both yield types. Nitrogen concentration in the final total yield allowed making yields prognosis with the highest probability. The maximum yields of technological malt barley were attainable provided that total S concentration in immature grains at harvest was above 0.23% and the N:S ratio was narrower than 8.0. Keywords: malt barley; maturity; immature grain fraction; nitrogen and sulphur indices; grain yields ... Load full article, 7 pages, 221 Kb, PDF file