Anheuser-Busch InBev announced a review of its UK business that looks likely to result in the closure of its Stag Brewery in Mortlake, London and a number of job losses, Reuters reported on January, 6.

The Stag Brewery in Mortlake, West London, which employs 182 workers, dates back to the 15th century and is one of the oldest brewery sites in the UK.

InBev said it was proposing to close the brewery, which produces Budweiser, Bud Ice and Michelob, in 2010.

Campaign group Camra said that although the brewery had not made any real ale for some time, it was still a "sad day" for the industry.

A-B InBev UK said in a statement: "Following the recent merger, InBev UK has today announced the start of a formal consultation on synergies arising from the merger and a restructure of the company's operations in the UK, with a potential reduction in the number of roles.

"This consultation is also a response to challenging market conditions and significantly higher costs imposed as a result of record rises in beer taxation, which mean that we need to review and propose any changes now.

"This proposal will be subject to full consultation with our employees and their representatives. This announcement ...More Info

According to analysts from Banamex Acciones y Valores, Mexico’s two largest brewers, Femsa’s Cuauhtémoc brewery and Grupo Modelo, will be seriously affected by the falling beer consumption in the US, El Universal reported on January, 5.

“We believe that Femsa’s sales volume will suffer more than those of Grupo Modelo since Femsa is more strongly represented in the north of Mexico and thus more dependent of sales in the United States,” the analysts posted.

Femsa’s EBITDA will achieve just a single-digit growth in 2009, forecasts Celso Sanchez, an analyst at Accival.

Femsa’s margins are also expected to shrink in 2009.

As for Grupo Modelo, experts forecast that its export volumes will grow just by 0.4% due to a drop of beer consumption in the United States.

Though Anheuser-Busch InBev is under a mandate to sell off its Labatt U.S. brand, the president of Buffalo-based Labatt USA says it's “business as usual” at his firm, St. Louis Business Journal reported on January, 5.

“We keep telling everyone, it is business as usual,” says James Pendegraft, Labatt USA president. “I can’t and won’t speculate on what may happen in the future.”

As stated by U.S. Department of Justice, AB InBev is to sell only the Labatt USA brand. The deal does not affect its Canadian operations.

The selling off of Labatt USA is expected to be completed sometime in the first quarter of this year.

Labatt Blue and Labatt Blue Light sold 37.4 percent and 35 percent of all local beers in their respective categories, according to a Scarborough Report issued last year. Combined with Budweiser and other Anheuser-Busch brands, they accounted for more than 60 percent of all local beer sales.

InBev will continue to brew and supply Labatt for the new buyer for the next three years.

Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) has announced a 5.74% price hike effective as from February, 2, the Morning Advertiser reported on January, 5.

In a letter sent to licensees on 29 December, the brewer said the increases are as a result of “unprecedented” hikes in production and material costs.

The company, whose portfolio includes Foster’s, the UK’s second biggest lager brand, as well as Heineken and Kronenbourg 1664, said the duty-inclusive increase will equate to a jump of £22 per 36-gallon barrel.

S&N last increased its wholesale beer prices in February 2008 and has honoured a commitment to restrict price increases to one per calendar year.

In a statement, S&N said it “has absorbed a large proportion of increased costs” in the last half of 2008.

Jeremy Blood, managing director of S&NUK, said: “While nobody likes increases, I believe that our new prices are fair and reasonable when compared to our competitors and the market conditions that prevail.

“S&N will continue to seek reductions in its production & procurement costs during 2009 and has no plans, at present, to increase prices again in 2009. However, instability does mean that all producers will be keeping pricing under regular review."

Spot cash prices for both feed and malting barley continue to be on the soft side, Farm & Ranch Guide cited Steve Edwardson, executive director of the North Dakota Barley Council, on December, 31.

Barley production in North Dakota is estimated at 86.24 million bushels, which represents an 11 percent increase over the 77.84 million bushels produced in 2007. The total U.S. barley crop in 2008 grew by an even larger 13 percentage points, with 238 million bushels estimated this year, according to Edwardson.

Nationwide, the barley crop averaged 63.6 bushels per acre, a 3.2 bushel increase from 2007 and the yield average for North Dakota is forecast to be around 56 bushels per acre.

“Barley production in the eastern half of North Dakota was better than expected,” Edwardson said. “Many growers were pleasantly surprised by the higher yields that were received, even though crop conditions did not appear to support the additional production. However, some areas in the western part of the state exhibited yields too low to justify harvesting, largely due to extreme drought conditions.”

He reports the quality of the 2008 crops was generally good in the state. The 2008 barley quality survey indicated that over 99 percent of the malt ...More Info

Soil conditions, fertiliser prices, contracts availability and crop prices are all key considerations in spring crop choices for 2009, Farmers Weekly Interactive communicated on January, 2.

Huge variations in all these factors mean the range of predicted gross margins from various sources has never been so wide, making decisions even trickier than usual, experts point out.

"Difficult and not profitable," is how Sentry Farming director Richard Peck sums it up. "Looking at the margins, it's not going to be easy. There'll be a huge area of spring crops going in and choice is limited.

"I think contracts will be essential for some of the area to manage the risk of low prices if markets get overdone. But costs need to be known to ensure you're not growing a crop that will make a loss.

"Spring barley will feature hugely, but maltsters know this and contracts are £120-£130/t. Margins will be tight at those levels.”

TAG's Andrew Wells believes some options could be worse than not sowing at all, unless prices improve significantly between now and when the crop is sold.

"Gross margins don't look exciting for many crops, particularly as we're expecting much larger spring barley and spring bean acreages in 2009, which will reduce premiums ...More Info

United States Department of Agriculture put last week’s barley shipments at 189,000 bushels, Agweek reported on January, 5.

Japan was the largest destination for the US barley (169,000 bushels) while Mexico also received some 20,000 bushels.

This compares to 289,000 bushels for last week and 49,000 bushels for last year at this time, it is reported. Thus, the year to date barley shipments total for 2008 is 10.4 mln bushels, compared with 23.5 million bushels for last year at this time.

USDA reported no barley export sales for the week of Christmas, which brings the year to date total sales pace to 10.2 million bushels compared with 40.0 million bushels for last year at this time.

According to reports, USDA is projecting barley exports at 20 million bushels this year.

Cash barley bids in Minneapolis jumped this week with feed barley up 20 cents to now be $2.80 while malting bids jumped 15 cents to $5.15.

H.H. Wijngaard, S. Renzetti and E.K. Arendt

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 113(1), 34–41, 2007 The structures of buckwheat and barley were observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy (CSLM) throughout the malting process. SEM and CSLM have different merits when studying grains and seeds. SEM can be used to study the detailed structure (high magnifications can be achieved) and CSLM to study the overall change in structure during processing. SEM proved that buckwheat starch is degraded by both pitting and surface erosion. A concentric sphere structure was visible when buckwheat starch granules were partly broken down. With CSLM, the organization of protein and starch of buckwheat and barley could be examined independently in projections and images visualizing the 3D structure. CSLM proved that buckwheat starch is surrounded by a protein matrix. Buckwheat protein was structured and surrounded starch granules, while barley protein was present in an amorphous mass through the endosperm. The differences in overall structure between unmalted and malted seeds were evident, as the starch and protein in both the barley and buckwheat were degraded. CSLM may be used in the future to couple processing characteristics to the structure of grains and seeds. Key words: Barley, buckwheat, confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM), malting, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) Load full article, 8 pages, 11076 Kb, PDF file