Within a fortnight, the Indian income-tax department will ask SABMiller to show cause why it did not deduct tax while paying Forster’s Australia $120 million (Rs 600 crore) for the acquisition of its Indian arm, Foster’s India in 2006, a senior income-tax official was quoted as saying by The Economic Times on December, 1.

The contention of both the companies has been that since the deals between two overseas parties were consummated offshore, the Indian tax authorities had no jurisdiction to tax the income arising out of the sale.

The tax liability on SABMiller could be in excess of Rs 60 crore. A spokesman for SABMiller said, “The issue on tax liability may be a matter of concern for Foster’s Australia. SABMiller cannot be involved in the tax dispute.”

SABMiller was directed by the Bombay High Court to revert to the income-tax department after the company dragged it to court on being served the tax notice.

In a separate case, Foster’s Australia had approached the Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR), a quasi-judicial body for clarifying issues of tax liability in transactions involving non-residents. On the question whether the sale of Foster’s brand name, patent, etc (to SABMiller), was liable to be ...More Info

San Miguel Corp. will study the impact of the Ongpin group’s increased stake in the conglomerate, in particular the possible consolidation of shareholdings of Top Frontier Investment Holdings Inc. and Q-Tech Alliance Holdings, Inc., companies led by businessman Roberto V. Ongpin, Business World Online communicated on December, 4.

In a disclosure, San Miguel said a committee has been tasked to study the impact on San Miguel of a possible tender offer or buyout of minority shareholders.

No other details were given except that the committee will seek the help of legal and financial advisers.

Last week, Top Frontier acquired the entire 28% stake of San Miguel’s retirement fund for P64.3 billion or P75 apiece. This was on top of the 20% stake bought by newly incorporated Q-Tech Alliance Holdings from Japan’s second-largest brewery, Kirin Holdings Co., for P39.61 billion.

Aside from Mr. Ongpin, other major shareholders of Top Frontier are Iñigo Zobel and Jose Campos, said to be allies of the San Miguel group. Messrs. Zobel and Ongpin, who sit on the board of San Miguel, are also major shareholders in Q-Tech Alliance Holdings.

Analyst Jose Mari B. Lacson of Campos, Lanuza & Co., Inc. said: “At the end of the day, they ...More Info

Hartwall's employee consultation negotiations have finished and the company has decided to implement its' reorganising and investment plans, Finland’s brewing association said on December, 2.

Tornio brewery will be closed in September 2010 and the brewery's all 100 employees will lose their jobs. Hartwall's production will be consolidated into the Lahti plant where a new canning line will be invested. At the new canning line, around 20 jobs will be created. New sales organisation will be in place January 1, 2010 leading to 25 job losses in the sales functions.

"The reorganisation resulting people losing their jobs is a very difficult decision. However tough, to remain competitive in the current market situation, having two production sites is no longer economically justified. The sales reorganisation is needed to better meet the present market structure of our customer. We regret the impact of the decision for those losing their jobs, as well as for their families", says Jan-Kees Nieman, Managing Director of Hartwall.

The new canning line investment in Hartwall Lahti enables Hartwall to better meet the increased demand for cans as beverage packaging and prepare for the future. The investment will create around 20 jobs in canning production and they will first ...More Info

Beer production rose 2.5% year-on-year in Latvia in the first nine months of 2009 as brewers made 109.961 ml litres of beer over the period, FlexNews reported on December, 2.

80% of beer made during the nine months, or 88.192 mln litres were sold domestically, which is nearly 8% less than a year ago. About 8% of Latvian-made beer was sold in foreign countries, mostly in Lithuania.

In the nine months of 2009, 33.469 mln litres of imported beer were released for sales in Latvia, which is 49% more than during the same period a year ago. This amount, however, makes only a fraction of the total beer consumption, because nearly three fourths of Latvians prefer domestic beer brands. Latvian beer sales totalled 121.662 mln litres in the first nine months of 2009, growing 3% from the same period in 2008.

Israeli beer experts say the Jewish state is going through something of a beer awakening, The Jewish Chronicle reported on December, 4.

While the average Israeli consumes only 13 litres of beer per year - compared to an estimated 85 litres annually for Americans - beer consumption is growing.

Shachar Hertz, owner of Beer Master, which organizes beer-related events in Israel for beer aficionados, brewers and importers, projects a 50 percent growth in Israeli beer consumption over the coming decade. Hertz and others say beer is following the model of wine in Israel, where the development of unique, local wines fueled significant growth in wine consumption over the past decade. Now it’s happening to beer, thanks in part to microbreweries.

“The revolution started exactly as in the wine industry,” said Guy Zuckerman, alcohol category manager at Tempo Beverages, which brews Israel’s two national beer labels, Goldstar and Maccabee.

Overall, Goldstar remains Israel’s beer leader, with 27 percent of market share, according to Zuckerman. Carlsberg is the country’s second favorite brand at 19 percent, followed by Maccabee at 13 percent and Heineken at 11 percent.

The emergence of the neighborhood pub over the past few years in urban centers such as Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem ...More Info

Belarus beer imports in January – October this year totalled 1.13 mln hl, Prime-Tass communicated on December, 1.

As compared to the same period last year, the nation’s beer imports grew by 5.7%.

In money terms, however, this constituted a 9.1% decrease versus January – October 2008.

Beer imports from Russia increased by 9.3% to 761.6 thousand hl. Beer imports from Ukraine decreased by 0.8% to 364.8 thousand hl.

Feed barley stocks are on the increase while malt barley is becoming harder to source in Australia, The Farm Online communicated on December, 4.

Quality issues caused by the dry finish to this year's growing season, has meant a low percentage of malting barley varieties are reaching malting grade standards across the nation.

Plum Grove director Tony Smith said harvest pace was starting to increase "slowly" in Western Australia, after recent rains caused several frustrating delays last month.

However, early harvest results are showing higher volumes of feed barley production and less malting barley.

"There's going to be more feed barley this year than there was last year and last year was a big year for feed barley because of the crop quality issues caused by the wet harvest," Mr Smith said.

The shifting supply and demand scenario is also having a positive impact on malt barley prices.

At the beginning of this week, Viterra/ABB Grain was offering A$236/tonne for its Western Australia malting barley domestic pool and A$216/t for its malting barley export pool.

Its feed barley pool was quoted at A$172/t.

The company's cash price for Baudin malting barley delivered to the Fremantle and Albany ports was A$208/t, and A$155/t for feed barley delivered to all ...More Info

An abundance of barley continues to keep the lid on any possible major upward price movement for both feed and malting barley as we go into the last month of 2009, Farm & Ranch Guide communicated on December, 3.

According to Steve Edwardson, executive director of the North Dakota Barley Council, this year was a time of lower prices, but a year of record yields for many producers.

“Another production season for small grains is completed in North Dakota, and what a difference a year can make,” Edwardson said. “In 2008, many growers in western North Dakota had no barley to harvest due to extremely dry conditions. In 2009, many of those same growers had high yields and good quality well beyond what they have ever received in the history of their farms. Yields, prices, and sales (both domestic and export) have seen many ‘hills and valleys' in recent years.”

The September 2009 small grains summary report from the National Ag Statistics Service placed the 2009 barley yield for North Dakota at 70 bushels per acre, an increase of 13 bushels per acre from the August 2009 production report.

The state's growers harvested 1,140,000 acres of barley in 2009, with total production pegged ...More Info

As the global beer market remains gloomy, maltsters and brewers are not rushing to provide themselves with large malting stock, La Depeche posted on December, 4.

For weeks on end EU’s malting barley markets are calm. Industry participants are closely watching Australia. A confirmation of quality problems from the nation is expected to raise the chances of European producers, analysts said.

Poor market prices for spring barley are worrying for growers, Masstock National Arable Seed Product manager, Barry Barker, was quoted as saying by Farmers Guardian on December, 3.

“In the East, where most grow spring barley for malting, there has already been a 20 to 25 per cent drop in winter malting barley seed sales. Spring plantings will be massively down compared to last season (in England).

“With no new prices or contracts being talked about, there is potentially enough existing stock in maltsters’ stores not to warrant needing new crop for a long time, possibly until February 2011.

“For this reason we are unlikely to see the maltsters make any early commitments,” he says.

Mr Barker suggests that further west in England, growers who grow spring barley for livestock on farms or for local feed mills are more likely to stick to traditions and stay with the crop.

“One or two big spring barley growers I’ve spoken to are thinking of planting up to 50 per cent less than last season, but people will get into the crop when they realise others are growing less,” Openfield National Seeds and Marketing manager, Paul Taylor, said.

Convinced the market for the crop will come right, Mr Taylor ...More Info

R. Juvonen and A. Haikara

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 115(3), 167–176, 2009 The aim of this study was to evaluate easy pre-PCR processing procedures to allow rapid and reliable detection of strictly anaerobic beer-spoilage bacteria throughout the brewing process by end-point and real-time PCR techniques. The efficiencies of the new procedures were evaluated using spiked brewery samples and specific PCRs for the target group bacteria. We found for the first time that the inclusion of 0.25% (w/v) bovine serum albumin (BSA) or 0.5% (w/v) polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) in the end-point PCR mixture reduces the inhibiting effect of brewery sample extracts (3–10%, v/v) on PCR. Membrane filtration with a PVP or a sodium tri-polyphosphate-EDTA wash, and cross-flow filtration were the most promising new methods to reduce inhibitors from beer samples before cell lysis. Together with BSA, they allowed the analysis of 10% (v/v) of crude extracts instead of <3% (v/v). Moreover, we developed a one-hour procedure to prepare target DNA from process samples containing brewer’s yeast. It involved removal of inhibitors by a twostep centrifugation followed by physical disruption of cells. The detection limit of the procedure was 101–103 CFU/mL. The developed procedures help to reduce the risk of partial or complete PCR failure due to inhibition and target DNA losses, with minimal sample handling.
Key words: beer, brewing process, facilitator, inhibition, PCR detection, sample treatment, strictly anaerobic beer-spoilage bacteria.
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