German breweries sold 10.3 billion liters of beer in 2008, down 1.1 percent from a year earlier, Bloomberg cited the Federal Statistics Office in Wiesbaden on January, 29.

That’s the lowest level recorded since data for a reunified Germany were first compiled in 1991, it is reported.

Domestic sales fell 0.9 percent to 8.8 billion litres and export sales dropped 1.9 percent to 1.5 billion litres.

Of the total sales in 2008, 85.2 percent were within Germany.

Exports to other countries in the 27-nation European Union declined by 1.2 percent, while exports to non-EU countries were down 4.1 percent.

Domestic beer consumption fell under the introduction of a nation-wide smoking ban in pubs and restaurants at the start of 2008, according to the Association of Private Breweries, which represents 800 of Germany’s 1300 breweries. Sales were depressed further as the global financial crisis pushed Germany’s economy into recession.

“Against the backdrop of these terrible conditions, we are quite happy with sales,” Roland Demleitner, the association’s president, said in a telephone interview. “We expected sales to decline even further.”

Germany still ranks third in the world in beer consumption per capita behind the Czech Republic and Ireland, Demleitner said.

San Miguel Brewery Inc. reported its full year audited results for 2008on January, 30.

The Philippine brewer said its net sales revenues constituted P48.8 billion in 2008, which is an 11% increase on its 2007’s sales of P44.1 billion.

The results were largely attributable to a 4% growth in sales volumes. SMB Inc.'s sales volumes for 2008 reached 174.5 million cases.

The company’s operating income rose 27% to P15.6 billion from P12.3 billion the prior year. Net income after tax grew 25.3% to P10.04 billion from last year’s P8.02 billion, resulting from a combination of operating leverage and a tighter focus on cost control, with good progress on efficiency and volume generating programs.

The brewer said brand expansion initiatives, tactical consumer and trade promotions enabled the company to further strengthen its market position.

As a result of these efforts, San Mig Light, Red Horse and Gold Eagle all grew in terms of volumes, alongside robust volumes from flagship San Miguel Pale Pilsen which launched its biggest Oktoberfest yet in 2008.

The United Romanian Breweries Bereprod (URBB) company, a major player on the Romanian beer market, posted an 18 percent annual increase in net sales in 2008, according to company officials, The Business Standard reported on January, 29.

The brewer also posted a 12 percent rise in sales in terms of volume for the reporting period.

URBB ended 2007 with business worth some RON 302 million (€91.5 mln), according to data reported to the nation’s Ministry of Finance. Considering the 18 percent rise, the enterprise’s turnover amounted to RON 356.3 mln (€96.7 mln).

For 2009, the firm plans to raise its sales volume by nine percent on the beer segment, it is reported.

URBB started exporting its Tuborg and Holsten brands to Albania in 2008, and targets other countries in Eastern Europe in the near future. The management is considering a 50 percent rise in exports for 2009. Due to the financial crisis, the company will cut its investments to some €7 mln in 2009, from approximately €20 mln in 2008. The producer initially drafted its budget for this year last October, based on a RON 3.8/€1 exchange rate, but revised this in January, at a RON 4.5/€1 rate.

Singapore’s Asia Pacific Breweries, which is partly owned by Heineken, said on January, 30 it will delay the sale of its stake in a Chinese brewery, Reuters communicated on the same day.

"Both parties are currently in discussion with a view to finalising new agreements," the company said in a statement.

Heineken-APB, a unit of Asia Pacific Breweries, said in June it would sell its 49 percent stake in Jiangsu DaFuHao Breweries to Nantong Fuhao Alcohol Industry for about $38 million.

San Miguel Brewery, the Philippine flagship of the San Miguel group, plans to raise as much as 40 billion pesos ($847 million) in a domestic bond issue to fund its purchase of the group's local beer brands and related assets, Reuters reported on January, 30.

"We will borrow to pay," San Miguel Brewery President Ramon Ang, who is also president of the San Miguel group, said in a text message to reporters on January, 29. "SMB is debt free."

Ang said the brewery arm of Southeast Asia's biggest food and drinks group was considering a tenor of 10 years or longer for the debt.

He gave no other details for the issue, but market observers said the debt could be broken up into portions.

"That should be scattered over several tranches. I doubt if they can raise that in one offer," said Benedicto Jose Arcinas, treasurer of Export & Industry Bank.

"It would depend on the pricing and the terms, but the market is liquid," he said.

Another banker from a foreign institution who asked for anonymity said: "I don't think that is executable in the local market."

San Miguel Brewery, the first brewery in Southeast Asia, has tapped HSBC and the state-run Development Bank of the ...More Info

The Portuguese beer maker Unicer is to start the construction of its brewery in Angola in the first half of this year, with an investment of 100 million euros, Macauhub reported on January, 30.

The brewery is due to start production in 2011, António Pires de Lima, chief executive of the Portuguese group, said.

Initially, the start of construction was planned for the end of 2008, and its launch – for 2010.

"The investment for construction of the Unicer factory in Luanda has already been approved, and now we are awaiting a report from the National Agency for Private Investment [state body to boost private investment in Angola] about some specific aspects of the project, but construction will begin in the first half of 2009,” said António Pires de Lima.

In terms of internationalisation, he said, Unicer is focusing on Portuguese-speaking countries (Angola, Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau), from the point of view that “leadership only makes sense when seeking sustainability and increasing profitability."

“Angola is, by far the most important market,” said the chief executive of Unicer, noting that the capacity of the factory in Luanda would be 200 million litres of beer, which will be achieved in 2013/2014.

Unicer is ranked second in Angola ...More Info

Bulk exports of western Canadian malting barley will be mainly sourced through cash purchases for the remainder of the crop year, the CWB announced on January, 29.

The Canadian Wheat Board said no further selections for new bulk export sales will be made through its designated barley pool. The Board believes this strategy will help protect relatively high current pooled values for farmers' designated barley, given recent international market price declines.

The current CWB Pool Return Outlook for Special Select two-row malting barley is C$5.50 per bushel (including average freight deductions from Saskatchewan), a projection well above last year's record-high C$5.13 a bushel.

Most new malting barley business for the remainder of 2008-09 will be carried out using CashPlus, a CWB program that offers farmers an upfront cash price, it was announced.

"Accurate price signals are important to malting barley farmers who must make decisions about where to sell their grain," CWB president and CEO Ian White said. "By using CashPlus for the rest of the year, the CWB can help inject the price certainty that farmers want - whether they sold through the pools earlier or secure a cash value now."

Prairie malting barley farmers have indicated that upfront price certainty is one of ...More Info

Euronext Liffe plans to launch a malt barley futures contract "as soon as possible," the exchange's communications spokesman James Barr was quoted as saying by Dow Jones on January, 29.

However, the contract is facing several sticking points regarding its quality requirements, which are holding up its introduction.

According to brokers, the main issue is French farming cooperatives wanting the contract to include allowances for lower grades of barley; with maximum moisture content of 15% (as opposed to 14.5%), maximum protein content of 12% (as opposed to 11.5%), and minimum germination of 93% (as opposed to 95%).

Maltsters, who buy barley to germinate it for brewing, are challenging these allowances.

The Grain & Feed Trade Association already has a physical contract with specifics which are in line with the maltsters requirements, but Incograin - Paris' trade association of commerce and grain - has additional allowances within its requirements.

"We're continuing to discuss potential contract designs with the key market players and in particular whether those terms should be set out by the Gafta or Incograin requirements or possibly a mixture of the two," said Barr.

Barley futures contracts don't usually result in the physical delivery of the grain, but instead are used as ...More Info

Without being excessive, the demand from the producers of fodder is still present on the EU market of feed barley, La Depeche posted on January, 30.

The feed barley market is competitive, especially compared to that of wheat, traders report. Deals are being closed but only on short day of maturity conditions. Within this context, prices have climbed during the week.

International demand for barley has made possible several deals in the port area, though on a smaller scale than wheat and maize trade in the same period.

As for the situation on the malting barley market, the activity is restricted to the spring varieties only, and mostly on the new crop. The prices have strengthened on lack of vendors. The remaining segments of the malting barley market are rarely solicited and it is difficult to establish the real level of prices.

Russia, which this year produced almost 50% more barley than in the previous season, must take urgent measures to save the market of the cereal, Nikolai Demyanov, International Grain Company deputy CEO, was quoted as saying by Finance.ua on January, 28.

“If the wheat market is stabilizing today through export and interventions, the situation on the barley market is very difficult. It is the barley market that needs to be saved and supported – either by increasing intervention purchases, or by offering export subsidies,” Mr. Demyanov claimed.

According to the expert, Russia’s barley production in 2008 was 7.5 mln tonnes higher than in 2007, and the market is flooded. “By all appearance, under the existing conditions, the market could be actively supported with the help of interventions, but the volume of barley purchased by the state is less than 760 thousand tonnes, whereas the volume of wheat in the intervention fund is more than 5 mln tonnes,” he pointed out adding that “there is no active export of barley at the moment.”

Mr. Demyanov said that in December Russia’s barley export totalled 405 thousand tonnes. In the first 20 days of January, barley export was just 50 thousand tonnes and will not ...More Info

Masaaki Yano, Hideki Tsuda, Takeo Imai, Yutaka Ogawa and Motoo Ohkochi

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 114(3), 230–238, 2008 Free amino nitrogen (FAN) and other low-molecular-weight nitrogen compounds (LNC) are highly important as nutrients for yeast. Many different types of low-malt beer exist around the world, some of which are produced with barley as an adjunct. In these cases, inhibitors contained in barley are known to influence the amount of LNC in wort. Accordingly, it is important to investigate which proteinase class is key in producing these compounds. By investigating the relationship between the FAN contained in wort produced from malt and barley (barley adjunct wort) and malt proteinase activity, it was found that cysteine proteinase and 1,10-orthophenanthroline (O-Phen)-inhibitable metallo proteinases had a significant correlation to the barley adjunct wort FAN levels. In addition, the relationship between malting conditions and these proteinase activities was investigated and the conditions defined for maximal production of proteinases as follows: steeping degree, 50%; germination temperature, 12°C; germination days, 6 days; water spray, 3 times and concentration of gibberellic acid, 10 mg/kg (barley). Key words: Barley, Load full article, 9 pages, 670 Kb, PDF file