SABMiller Plc, challenging state governments in India to loosen the rules on beer sales, said profit in the country may double if it wins a court case, Bloomberg communicated on December, 16.

“India is still not a very big market per head, but the market could easily be 10 times bigger within 10 to 20 years,” Jean-Marc Delpon de Vaux, managing director of SABMiller India, said in an interview.

The company is fighting pricing controls and a monopoly wholesaler in Andhra Pradesh, where a court will indicate whether it will hear the suit by Dec. 22. De Vaux says a legal “domino effect” could force states with two-thirds of India’s people to liberalize.

According to analysts, regulation and taxes keep India’s $2.3 billion beer market from becoming the next, and possibly last, great growth region for the beer industry as developed markets stagnate.

SABMiller and Carlsberg A/S struggle with a myriad other rules not found elsewhere, including bans on beer commercials that have led to TV spots featuring young Indians partying with bottled water.

De Vaux, speaking in an interview in New Delhi, said reforms would lift Indian volume growth fourfold within five years to around 5 litres per person a year, ...More Info

An EU court has ruled that Anheuser-Busch InBev NV’s European Union-wide trademark on ‘Bud’ isn’t valid for beer and certain other uses, Bloomberg reported on December, 16.

Thus, the court backed a challenge by the brewer’s Czech competitor Budejovicky Budvar NP.

Budvar contested three decisions by the EU’s trademark agency that gave Anheuser-Busch the region-wide rights to use Bud on beer and other alcoholic beverages. The Czech company markets its brew as Budvar in some places with the word Budweiser in smaller print and in others it sells beer as Bud, adding “original Czech” above the logo.

The EU trademark office “made several errors by rejecting the opposition by Budejovicky Budvar against Anheuser-Busch’s applications,” the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg said in its ruling on December, 16.

The cases are part of a fight that has raged for more than a century over the name rights covering use of the Bud brand for the companies’ beer, their main product. Budvar says it owns the rights because its beer comes from Ceske Budejovice, which is called Budweis in German.

Budvar claims so-called appellation of origin rights, an EU protection for products associated with a certain region.

Anheuser-Busch says it started using the Budweiser ...More Info

Yanjing Brewery Co, one of China’s largest beer producers, announced it had raised 1.12 billion yuan ($164 million) through a share placement, Reuters reported on December, 13.

The company issued 110 million new shares at 10.20 yuan each, a 21 percent discount to its last market price of 12.98 yuan. Of the total, 88 million shares went to its parent company and the rest to three fund management companies.

Proceeds from the private placement will be used to expand its production capacity and establish new facilities in outlying regions of the country including Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang.

The company's total capital stock will be increased to 1.21 billion after the issuance.

India’s United Breweries Holdings is considering bidding for the UK assets of Cobra Beer, Namnews cited a report by the Economic Times on December, 17.

UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya reportedly said he was keen on the brewery's UK assets for its distribution network.

Other companies in the race to acquire Cobra Beer's assets are Carlsberg, Molson Coors, and SABMiller, the report said.

Cobra Beer recently announced it was ready to split its U.K. and the loss-making India assets to facilitate the sale of its business. Cobra Beer founder Karan Bilimoria is looking at a valuation of £180 mln - £200 mln for the entire business

Irish pubs report a 20 percent plunge in pub draught sales in November, the Herald published on December, 15.

Industry experts are describing the crisis as "meltdown" for the market, which has seen an even bigger drop in the sale of bottle and canned beer - at 25 percent.

This follows drops of 8 percent for draught beer and 10 percent for canned beer the previous month.

Internal statistics compiled by the country’s biggest brewers shows only cheaper brands are holding steady as consumer spending wanes.

Sources predicted the financial pressure of the sales slump will lead more pubs to close or go into examinership.

The latest figures came from the largest drinks companies and distributors - Diageo, Inbev, Budweiser, Heineken and the Gleeson Group.

For the year so far, beer sales are down 5 percent. However, the rate of the fall accelerated as consumer confidence plummeted in the face of recession.

Pubs and shops are finding it hardest to sell premium brands as drinkers face a leaner Christmas and prepare for the predicted financial woes of the new year.

Cheaper drinks such as Bavaria, Tuborg and Dutch Gold are maintaining their sales figures.

All sectors of the beer market combined in 2007 ...More Info

Asia Pacific Breweries said it will enter the West Bengal market in a month in line with its pan-India expansion plans, Business Line reported on December, 14.

“We are looking at entering West Bengal in a month or so. We are looking at growing our business here (India)”, Asia Pacific Breweries CEO South Asia, Mr Ashwin Deo said.

Asked if the company was looking for acquisition, Mr Deo said it was too early to comment.

“The next summer is going to be our first season and it is only after we establish ourselves here that we can talk about all that.”

The company is currently present in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi (North), Maharashtra and Goa (West), Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka (South).

“We are looking at rolling out our product nationally. We have had a good response in the short time that we have been here,” Mr Deo commented.

Slavutich Carlsberg Group is mulling a complete stop of its Kiev plant, Kommersant – Ukraine cited the company’s General Director Petr Chernishov on December, 16.

According to Mr Chernishov, the production volumes of the Kiev facility will be redistributed among the brewer’s Zaporozhye and Lvov plants.

The company’s decision resulted from the fact that Kiev authorities increased water charge and water use tax three-four times as from December, 1, it is reported.

“Taking into account the fact that the plant needs 2.9 litres of water to produce 1 litre of beer, our costs will grow by approximately UAH500 thousand per month, or by UAH25 mln annually,” Petr Chernishov said.

Slavutich will consider all the means of cost cutting, including a reduction of working hours or transferring the production to another plants during the off-season months, he added.

Slavutich Carlsberg Group is Ukraine’s third-largest brewer with a market share of 20.4%.

World barley production is forecast to increase by 20 mln tonnes to 153 mln tonnes in 2008 – 2009, ABARE posted this month.

The European Union will remain the largest barley producer. With favourable growing conditions, yields of the crop are estimated to be above historical averages: 4.46 tonnes a hectare compared with a five year average of 4.17 tonnes a hectare.

Barley production in the Russian Federation is estimated to be 22.5 million tonnes in 2008-09, close to 7 million tonnes more than the previous year. This is despite a fall in the area planted to barley as growers switched into the production of wheat.

In Ukraine seasonal conditions have been favourable and yields are estimated at a record 3.05 tonnes a hectare, resulting in production more than doubling the previous year’s harvest.

The majority of the 9 million tonne increase in world barley stocks is expected to come from the European Union and the Russian Federation. Stocks in these countries are forecast to increase by around 5 million tonnes and 3 million tonnes respectively, ABARE informed.

Australian barley production is forecast to be 6.4 million tonnes in 2008-09, a 7 per cent increase on the previous year’s harvest.

Poor spring conditions in ...More Info

ABB Grain Ltd., Australia’s largest barley exporter, and AWB Ltd. ended talks about a possible merger after failing to agree on terms, Bloomberg reported on December, 17.

“ABB Grain will continue to execute its growth strategies as a stand-alone entity and continue to review potential merger and acquisition opportunities in the global agriculture sector,” Adelaide-based ABB Grain said in a statement.

Last month, the two companies said they were in talks that would have created the nation’s biggest grain exporter after industry deregulation. A government decision in July to allow multiple wheat shippers, including overseas grain companies, has increased pressure on Australian exporters to merge.

“Today’s announcement is disappointing as a merger between the two companies made strategic sense and would have resulted in substantial synergy benefits,” ABN Amro Morgans Ltd. analyst Belinda Moore said in a note to clients. “We still believe that industry consolidation will occur at some point in the grains industry.”

It is believed the companies could not agree on a valuation split, with ABB holding the upper hand with a percentage majority in the low 50s, the Age posted on the same day.

The united group would have been renamed and based in Adelaide, ABB's home town, with ABB ...More Info

Statistics Canada (STC) released its estimate of the nation’s barley production in 2008 – 2009 on December, 12.

According to STC, barley production increased to 11.8 mln tonnes, a 7% rise from last year as a sharp increase in yields (3.36 tonnes/ha, + 22%) more than offset a drop in harvested area (3,502 thousand ha, - 14%).

Supplies are projected to rise by 7% to 13.4 mln tonnes. Domestic use is forecast to rise to 8,889 thousand metric tonnes, due to an expected decline in corn imports for feeding.

Total exports are forecast at 2.3 mln tonnes, significantly lower than a year ago, due to lower feed barley exports.

Carry-out stocks are projected to rise by 40% to 2,200 thousand metric tonnes but are expected to be below the five year average.

The average off-Board feed barley price (No. 1 CW I/S Lethbridge) is forecast to decline below the 2007-08 average (to C$170-200).

France’s barley crop estimate has been increased to 12.3 mln tonnes, 80,000 tonnes more than last month’s estimate, the ONIGC reported on December, 10.

The market availability of the French barley is 10.7 mln tonnes, taking into account of the stock at the beginning of the season (0.7 mln tonnes) and the exports estimated at 50,000 tonnes of barley.

Domestic use of barley is maintained at 2.5 mln tonnes, of which 1.6 mln tonnes for feed use.

Sales to EU nations estimate was increased to 3.4 mln tonnes (+ 0.1 mln tonnes from the last month), due to the improved prospects of sales to the Netherlands, Germany and the Iberian Peninsula.

Exports to third countries: maintained at more than 1.7 mln tonnes of grain (+ 0.5 mln tonnes from 2007/2008).

At 140 $/tonne Fob, the prices for the French feed barley are still higher than those for the Ukrainian and Russian feed barley (130 - 135 $/t Fob and 125 - 130 $/t Fob respectively). This makes impossible at the moment to forecast any increase of exports of French barley to third countries, the ONIGC posted, though the nation’s prices for barley have fallen to the level of intervention.

French malt exports are expected to ...More Info

Since the beginning of the current marketing year, the EU has granted export licenses for 2.8 mln tonnes of barley, the ONIGC posted on December, 10.

The same period last year saw export licenses for 2.6 mln tonnes of barley.

France and Germany received licenses for 0.8 mln tonnes of barley each, followed by the Netherlands with 0.5 mln tonnes of barley licensed for export.

Barley prices are already lower than intervention prices in many countries of the Union’s east, as well as in Germany, the Office reports.

A global shortage of hops has reinvigorated Australia’s hops market, the Australian communicated on December, 15.

Small breweries that buy their hops overseas have been priced out of the market by the shortage and have turned to local growers, who are now doubling their plantings.

Peter Meddings, who runs Bintani Australia, supplying hops, yeast and malt to small brewers, said prices had quadrupled for some varieties of hops and others were no longer available.

As a result, some small brewers had to use another variety of hops, effectively changing their style of beer.

"Or they have had to move totally away from that style of beer and create a new beer with whatever hops are available," Mr Meddings said.

Large Australian breweries buy their hops locally, with many of the growers cultivating their hops under contract.

Faced with a shortage, the big breweries bought up what they could in the US, leaving the small beer makers without any hops.

"The poor craft brewer has been hit very hard over the past 1 1/2 to two years," Mr Meddings said.

He said US hops would remain in short supply for at least another year, and the year ahead would be the most difficult for supply ...More Info

Wen-xue Zhang, Zong-wei Qiao, Yue-qin Tang, Cheng Hu, Qun Sun, Shigeru Morimura and Kenji Kida

Abstract

ABSTRACT J. Inst. Brew. 113(1), 21–27, 2007 Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and 18S rRNA gene analysis were carried out to analyze the fungal community in Zaopei during the production of Chinese Luzhou-flavour liquor. Two pairs of primers (EF4 /Fung5 and EF4/NS2-GC) were used for the DGGE. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for clone analysis was preformed with the primers (EF4 /EF3). The results of the DGGE analysis showed that the fungal 18S rRNA genes taken from the Zaopei sample of the pit had high diversity. Gene clone libraries containing 120 clonal sequences of 18S rRNA were constructed. The fungal diversity shift showed that the fungal genera changed with increasing fermentation time and four genera of fungi (Issatchenkia, Talaromyces, Aspergillus and Eurotium) were the main dominant communities during the fermentation of Chinese Luzhou-flavour liquor. The clonal sequences of the genera Rhizopus and Saccharomyces were found with difficulty from the clone libraries of Zaopei, suggesting that the genera Rhizopus and Saccharomyces perhaps are not necessary for saccharifying and fermenting grains during the production of Chinese Luzhou-flavour liquor. Key words: Chinese Luzhou-flavour liquor, clone analysis, DGGE, fungi, 18S rRNA gene, Zaopei. Load full article, 7 pages, 676 Kb, PDF file