China is the world’s leader in terms of beer production and sales, but its exports volume remains rather low, China PRO published on December, 8.

According to analysts, the volume of export makes just 0.5% of China’s total beer production. The main amount of Chinese beer is distributed and consumed domestically. In the export business the top place belongs to Tsingtao Beer produced by Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited, which constitutes about 50% of the total export volume.

There are two main reasons to such a small volume of export, analysts maintain: first, the Chinese brewers are focused on producing highly-flavoured beer with a short shelf-life, which makes exporting the products outside the nation very difficult. For the same reason, many international companies prefer constructing their plants in China to importing their beers here. The second reason of limited exports is the fact that despite China’s global leadership in production volumes, Chinese beer is not that popular on the Western market.

Comparing the quality, packaging and sales experience, it should be noted that China is still considerably lagging behind its global brewing competitors. Besides, a negative impact was caused by an incident which took place in 2003, when high amount of formaldehyde ...More Info

Anheuser-Busch InBev announced on December, 8 that, as part of its previously announced plans to effectively integrate Anheuser-Busch Inc., the U.S. business unit will cut approximately 1,400 U.S. salaried positions in its beer-related divisions.

The layoff will affect about 6 percent of the company’s total U.S. workforce.

About 75 percent of the affected positions are based at the brewer’s corporate headquarters in St. Louis, at downtown offices or at its Sunset Hills campus, while other reductions will occur in field and brewery locations, it is reported.

In addition, more than 250 U.S. positions that are currently open will not be filled. An additional 415 contractor positions will be eliminated.

Most of the reductions will occur by the end of this year, with the remainder taking effect next year.

“To keep the business strong and competitive, this is a necessary but difficult move for the company,” said David A. Peacock, president of Anheuser-Busch. “We will assist in the transition for these employees as much as possible. The people of Anheuser-Busch dedicate themselves to the business, and we appreciate all of their contributions.”

The announced workforce reductions are in addition to the more than 1,000 U.S. salaried employees company-wide who accepted the company’s voluntary enhanced retirement program, ...More Info

Asahi Breweries reported its November 2008 beer sales on its official site on December, 10.

The Japanese brewer said its domestic beer sales amounted to 125,408 kilolitres (down by 7.7% from November, 2007).

Total domestic beer sales (including the low-malt happoshu and no-malt new genre beer) were 173,998 kilolitres - 6.5% lower than in the same month last year.

January – November domestic beer sales fell by 4.8% to 1,431,771 kilolitres. Total beer sales of the given period constituted 2,036,934 kilolitres (- 3.5% yoy).

The company said among its brands the highest sales increase was registered by Jukusen: 44.5% increase over last year’s November sales, + 107.8% in January – November over the same period in 2007. The Style Free brand also sold better than last year (910 thousand cases, + 18.8% over November, 2007). The rest of Asahi brands showed lower yoy sales, according to the brewer.

Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd., China’s leading beer producer, plans to build a production base in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, Yan Xu, Marketing Director of the company, was quoted as saying by Xinhua on December, 8.

Tsingtao’s share of the province’s beer market constitutes no more than 10 percent, as the company's major high-end products seem to lose in the fierce competition among mid and low-end beer varieties priced around 2 yuan/bottle.

Qingdao Brewery has achieved total sales volume of 500 million yuan in Hubei this year and will put more investments in the local market, according to Yan.

Currently, the company has completed acquisition of three beer firms in Huangshi, Xiaogan, and Suizhou of Hubei.

Qingdao Brewery has set up a new factory in Huangshi with annual output of 150,000 tons specializing in cheaper brands under the flag of Tsingdao Beer and a small amount of Qingdao Beer.

The plants in the other two localities possess annual production capacity of 50,000 tons each.

Estimates for Chilean beverages company, Compañia Cervecerias Unidas S.A., have been revised downwards by Research Oracle, due to an anticipated slowdown in Chile's economy, Seeking Alpha reported on December, 7.

Last month, CCU reported an increase in top-line due to strong growth in the Beer-Argentina segment, which was up (+110.2%) year-on-year. However, net income was lower by (-6.9%) due to higher General and Administrative Expenses, as well as increased interest expenses and negative impact from currency fluctuations. Earnings per ADR fell from US$0.31 in 3Q '07, to US$0.29.

In their analysis, Research Oracle expresses concern over the effect that declining commodity prices will have on the Chilean economy, which has still been relatively sheltered from the international crisis. The latest macroeconomic data from The Central Bank of Chile points to declining industrial production and domestic consumer demand, combined with higher expected unemployment. Chilean economists have also changed their estimates for economic growth from (3.5%) to (2.5%) in the last month.

Furthermore, they expect widening margins due to anticipated decline in global commodity prices, such as barley and sugar, partially offset by higher power and SG&A expenses.

CCU is currently down -32,21% YTD, trading at a P/E of 11.54. In comparison, Carlsberg (CGBWF.PK) is down ...More Info

The $15.4-billion buyout of the British brewer Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) by a Carlsberg-Heineken consortium last January is under the scanner of the Indian income-tax department, the Economic Times communicated on December, 9.

The department is exploring the possibility of claiming tax on the S&N deal with Carlsberg-Heineken.

The transaction involved sale of S&N’s Indian business, acquired from the UB group. In 2004, S&N paid about Rs 500 crore for a 37.5% stake in UB.

An amendment incorporated in the Income Tax Act in the last Budget has empowered the department to claim tax from the buyer of the stake, if the seller did not pay tax in India on the deal.

The department’s argument while sending notices on recent cross-border deals like Vodafone-Hutchison, Idea Cellular-AT&T deal, Foster’s Australia-SABMiller was simple: profit generated in India is liable to be taxed in India even if the transaction took place outside India between two overseas parties.

“We have not yet received any intimation from the Income-tax department on this issue,” said a UB official.

Beer is the engine of Mexico’s economy as it makes 1.6% of the nation’s GDP and 3.8% of its total tax exceeds, EXonline communicated on December, 4.

According to Emilio Herrera, the president of the National Chamber of the Beer and Malt Industry, Mexico’s brewing sector “plays a very important role on the international scale, as Mexico is the fourth producer of beer in the world and the first beer exporter.”

This generates particular challenges for the two largest Mexican brewers: Femsa and Grupo Modelo. The objective of both companies is to continue growing and to increase their presence in the world.

The two competitors are constructing a new plant each: Femsa in Chihuahua, Grupo Modelo in Coahuila.

The US is the main market for the Mexican beer, “not only because it is close, but because the US is the most important customer,” Herrera said.

Beer consumption per capita exceeds 100 litres in the US, whereas in Mexico it varies between 56-58 litres annually.

Although both Modelo and Femsa are large exporters and thus highly susceptible to the impact of the global economic crisis, Emilio Herrera indicates that “it is still hard to diagnose the real effect of the crisis. There will be an impact, but ...More Info

French Soufflet Group is to inaugurate a malt factory in Buzau (south of Romania) in the first quarter of 2009, the company representatives were quoted as saying by Financiarul on December, 5.

Initially, the firm’s management announced as its deadline the second half of this year. The investment is approximately €60 million worth, the unit having an annual production capacity of some 105,000 tons.

This capacity will be sufficient to cover the malt needs for two of the main three players on the domestic market of beer, and one of them might give up its own malt factories preferring Soufflet services instead, it is reported.

Soufflet Romania posted last year a turnover of €18.2 million and net losses of some €2 million. The company holds malt factories in Pitesti (south) and Buzau, which at present is not operating. Besides, Soufflet owns silos for raw material storage in Timisoara (west).

Soufflet announced its investment in Buzau factory, in 2006 and the first client on the list was going to be beer producer Ursus Breweries, according to company information on that date.

However, Buzau investment finalization could trigger the closing down of some local production units, as some of Heineken malt units, sources on the beer market ...More Info

New offers of malt have appeared in the market for delivery on 2009, industry participants announced at the beginning of this month.

Experts believe the appearance of new offers is due to a certain slowdown of deliveries, but mostly to maltsters’ apprehension of a stronger slowdown to come.

It is admitted that many maltsters have or aim at order books well above their production capacity, in order to prepare for an eventual slower off-take of malt in 2009.

Activities in November included malt sales to Brazil and some smaller export markets early in the month.

EU’s domestic malt sales of crop 2009, particularly to German brewers, continued during the whole month, it is reported.

Prices of nearby positions declined well below EUR 400,- per ton FOB seaport, crop 2009 malt traded around the 400,- mark, delivery 2010, CPT breweries.

The news that a large Russian brewery group postponed and cancelled malt orders, and a large maltster from the same country idled part of his production temporarily recently excited the international malt markets, analysts reported on December, 1.

It seems that the Russian beer industry was surprised by a very small growth of sales and found itself sitting on large stocks and purchases, experts suggest.

Russia is a country of large malt companies with clear commercial concepts. Temporary closure of capacity and a stop of new construction should bring supply and demand in balance soon again, all analysts agree.

The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) published its latest Australian Crop Report on December, 9.

Australia’s winter barley production is estimated to reach 6.4 million tonnes in 2008 – 2009.

“Although these production levels are significantly higher than in 2007-08, they are well below mid-year expectations,” ABARE posted.

Though hampered by poor spring, barley production is estimated to be around 440 000 tonnes greater than what was produced last season.

New South Wales

The area planted to barley is estimated to have been 3 per cent lower in 2008-09, to 980 thousand hectares. Barley production is estimated to have more than doubled in 2008-09, to 1.53 million tonnes, reflecting a significant improvement in yields from last year’s drought affected crop (1.56 tonnes/ha in 2008-090.

Victoria

The area planted to barley is estimated to have increased by around 3 per cent to 950,000 hectares. Barley yields of 0.92 t/ha have been lower than last year, and accordingly production is estimated to have declined by 21 per cent to around 870,000 tonnes.

Queensland

Barley production is estimated at 182,000 tonnes in 2008-09, a 14 per cent increase on the 160,000 tonnes harvested in the previous year. Reflecting the generally favourable growing conditions experienced across the Queensland grains ...More Info

The weight of domestic barley offers has depressed feed and malting barley markets to new lows, industry analysts reported earlier this month.

According to the latest data provided by traders, feed barley is offered at EUR 105,-, basis July, track/CIF Rouen, is bid EUR 105,-, November, track Hamburg, and offered EUR 95,-/100,-, November, ex silo East Germany.

The intervention purchase price level in November is EUR 101.77, and the first 12,000 tons of barley have been offered to intervention in Southeast Europe.

If Black Sea barley is available at US$ 130,- FOB, the EU cannot compete any more. Intervention offers a solid bottom to the market, experts maintain.

Barley prices, but especially feed barley prices, remain soft due to the lack of demand, Randy Brag of Valley Grain Service in Casselton, North Dakota, was quoted as saying by Farm & Ranch Guide on December, 6.

“We just don't have any real export market going on at this time and we're also trying to get barley into competition with corn, and that's just taken the price of feed barley right down,” Brag said.

“We could head down to ‘old levels,' which would put feed barley down to about $2 - we aren't that far away.”

According to Brag, several factors are currently leading to the low U.S. export volume of feed barley, including the recent financial crisis that seems to be world-wide, plus the fact that the U.S. dollar has increased in value over the last few months.

Also, this is the first time in a few years when almost the entire world had a good barley crop, according to Brag, which means that we are now back to normal levels.

“We also got a lot of the speculators out of the market in terms of corn, soybeans and wheat, so we are not going to see the wild rallies like we saw last ...More Info

There is a great unsold surplus of malting barley in the hands of EU farmers, coops and trade, particularly in France and Germany, experts communicated last week.

French two-row spring barley, variety Sebastian, is quoted EUR 135,-, basis July, FOB Moselle, and around 130,- in the neglected Creil market.

The cheapest six-row winter barley, variety Cervoise, is quoted EUR 118,- FOB Moselle.

German spring barley costs EUR 155,-/160,-, January, delivered maltings.

U.K. barley, Dec/Jan, at EUR 150,- FOB is not competitive, and Danish barley is still being repurchased at even higher prices.

Substantial business has been done in malting barley of crop 2009, although price levels have risen from a premium of EUR 20,- to EUR 30,-/35,- above crop 2008.

Main buyers were maltsters for new malt sales of crop 2009 malt and brewers, covering part of their barley short under LTA’s.

Prices had risen to EUR 170,-, July 2009, FOB Moselle, and EUR 200,-, October 2009, delivered maltings Germany, but have moderated by EUR 5,- to 10,- since.

Freight rates are sharply lower, reported grain fixtures are US Gulf to Antwerp/Hamburg range US$ 21,- (last year 85,-), Australia to China US$ 18,- (63,-), sources informed earlier this month.

Price comparison provided by experts is as follows: Russian and Ukrainian feed barley, FOB Black Sea, US$ 125,-/140,-; EU barley FOB North Sea ports US$ 145,-; Australian feed barley US$ 125,-/130,- FOB West coast.

Canadian and U.S. barley are not competitive, experts inform.

Export shipments of this campaign are: Ukraine July/Nov 4.215 mln tons, Russia July/18 Nov 1.147 mln tons, EU July/27 Nov (licences) 2.708 mln tons, Canada Aug/16 Nov 312,000 tons, USA June/13 Nov (sales) 222,000 tons. Australia shipped 3.275 mln tons in Nov/Sept 2007/08.

The total production of hops in the Czech Republic amounted to 6752.79 tonnes in 2008, Hop Growers Union of the Czech Republic communicated on December, 8.

Last year the country reported hop production of 5630.6 tonnes.

In the Saaz hop growing region the total hop production was 4576.24 tonnes, in the Auscha hop growing region the total production was 960.41 tonnes and in the Tirschitz hop growing region the hop production was 1215.84 tonnes, it is reported.

As compared to the bad crop results in 2006 and 2007, the 2008 crop is a very good one. It is even the second best year in the last decade behind the 2005 crop with 7831 tonnes, the Union posted.

However with regards to the total production of Saaz variety 2008 crop ranks in the fifth place in the last decade due to the decrease in hop acreage.

Saaz accounts for the largest share of the Czech hop production. Of the 5563 tonnes of Saaz produced this year, 3848.5 tonnes were harvested in the Saaz hop growing region, 846.5 tonnes - in the Auscha hop growing region and 868 tonnes - in the Tirschitz hop growing region.

The production of Saaz variety was 1000 tonnes over the crop ...More Info

Pavel Hofta, Pavel Dostálek and David Sýkora

Abstract

ABSTRACT J. Inst. Brew. 113(1), 48–54, 2007 Excellent liquid chromatographic (LC) separation of cis/trans stereoisomers of iso-alpha-acids has been achieved with reversedphase sorbent XTerra MS C18. An isocratic alkaline mobile phase, consisting of a mixture of 5 mmol l–1 ammonium acetate (pH 8)-acetonitrile-methanol, 62:21:17 (v/v/v), was used. In the DCHA-Iso international calibration standard trans-isoposthumulone was identified combining photo diode array (PDA) spectra and electrospray high-accuracy mass spectrometric (MS) data. Moreover, the molecular mass of two degradation products resulting from the in-solution storage of the DCHA-Iso standard was determined. The presence of trans and cis isomers of isoposthumulone, isocohumulone, isoadhumulone and iso-n-humulone in beer samples was confirmed. The trans isomers of iso-alpha- acids showed characteristic and reproducibly slightly different ultraviolet absorbance spectra with respect to cis isomers. Key words: Beer, DCHA-Iso standard, electrospray, food analysis, high-accuracy mass spectrometry, isoadhumulone, isocohumulone, iso-n-humulone, isoposthumulone, UV spectra. Load full article, 7 pages, 629 Kb, PDF file