U.S. beer sales volumes fell 2.2% last year, the highest rate since the 1950s, The Wall Street Journal reported on January, 21.

The demand worsened late in the year in a sign of the pressures on big brewers to make their mergers pay off, it is reported.

Retailers and analysts said the decline, the industry's first since 2003, raises demands for industry leaders Anheuser-Busch InBev NV and MillerCoors LLC to come up with better advertising and to rethink recent price increases.

But they must tread carefully, balancing price moves against a need to drive profits in the wake of the mergers that created the two.

The two giants increased prices by about 5% last year, fresh off InBev NV's acquisition of Anheuser-Busch Cos. and the move by SABMiller PLC and Molson Coors Brewing Co. to combine U.S. operations. Those increases, along with a weak job market and lackluster advertising, contributed to the sales drop, industry analysts said.

Anheuser is trying to pare debt incurred from InBev NV's $52 billion buy of Anheuser-Busch in 2008. Spokesmen for Anheuser and MillerCoors declined to comment.

Some retailers are pushing back against the industry's price increases and calling for a new approach to marketing. "We need cost decreases ...More Info

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest beer maker, and unions have reached a deal to end a two-week blockade of Belgian breweries that was drying up supplies of local brands, Reuters reported on January, 21.

Belgian workers have sealed off the entrances to the company's large plants in Leuven and Liege and for a week the smaller Hoegaarden factory in protest at AB InBev's plan to shed 299 of its 2,700 Belgian workers.

Two mediation attempts failed to break the deadlock. Unions have demanded that AB InBev withdraw the plan before entering any discussions. A third attempt on January, 21 finally bore fruit.

"The plan has been withdrawn," said Kris Croonenborghs of the ABVV union. "I believe the blockades will end by tomorrow."

The company's Belgian unit, InBev Belgium, said it had accepted the recommendations of mediators and that dialogue could now start.

The mediators suggested that InBev draw up a plan together with unions and that the company hold a Europe-wide works council.

AB InBev, which also makes Budweiser and Beck's, has said it could cut some 10 percent of its 8,000 strong workforce in western Europe due to falling beer markets.

Beer giant Heineken, which recently announced the USD 7.6 billion acquisition of the beer operations of the Latin American company FEMSA, is expected to considerably strengthen its position in the Americas, Flexnews communicated on January, 21.

"Heineken may have paid a high price for FEMSA but this deal will transform the company, giving it access to the two largest markets in Latin America with a partner which retains a vested interest in these markets through an equity holding", said Paul Curran of market research body Euromonitor.

According to Euromonitor data, the FEMSA beer acquisition is expected to increase Heineken's share of the global beer market from 6.9% to 9.2%, thus closing the gap on second-placed SABMiller, which in 2009 held a share of 9.5%.

The deal will also increase Heineken's share in Mexico and Brazil as well as secure its 2007 joint venture with FEMSA in the US premium import market. It is understood that FEMSA brands have increased volumes in the US, unlike Heineken's Dutch brands Heineken and Amstel, which have seen declines.

According to the Euromonitor data, Mexico and Brazil are the two leading beer markets in Latin America and, combined, accounted for just under 63% of the region's beer volumes in ...More Info

Carlsberg, the world's fourth-biggest brewery, said around 600 of its brewery workers and drivers in Denmark went on strike on January, 22 over pay, halting its beer production in the country, Reuters reported on the same day.

The 3f union initiated the strike after the firm informed it there would be no local pay rises for blue collar workers this year following a weak Danish market in 2009, Carlsberg spokesman Jens Bakke said.

"Shift workers are being informed as they arrive at work, and some of them have chosen to go home," said Bakke. "That means we are not producing (beer)."

The number of strikers could reach 1,100 by the end of the week, Bakke said. He declined to comment on the likely financial effects of the action. "We don't know how long the strike will last," he said.

Carlsberg's production unit in Denmark, Fredericia, has a yearly beer output of 430 million litres and roughly the same volume of soft drinks. The soft drinks workers have not yet decided whether to go on strike, Bakke said.

In 2008 Carlsberg produced around 110 hectolitres of beer. The firm's full-year 2009 results are due on Feb.23.

3f officials were not immediately available for ...More Info

Beer output of Ukraine’s Obolon brewery declined by 14.8% to 9.66 mln hl in 2009, the company announced on January, 21.

According to Ukrpivo data, the nation’s total beer production fell by 6.2% to 30.05 mln hl last year.

Obolon is Ukraine’s second-largest brewery with 6 production facilities across the country. The company said it plans to regain this year leading positions on the Ukrainian beer market lost in 2009.

"In 2009, the Obolon's share of beer production was 32.2%, and for the first time Obolon lost the top position, which the company firmly intends to regain this year," the company's press service stated.

"In 2009, Obolon, as other beer market players, suffered from the aftermath of the economic and financial crisis and short-sighted policy in the legal regulation of the area," the press service said.

The company said that last year was one of the most difficult years for the beer sector. Apart from a rise in excise duties on beer, the market was affected by a fall in consumers' buying power.

Obolon’s closest rival on the domestic market is SUN InBev Ukraine, a subsidiary of the Belgian brewing giant AB InBev.

Canadian-based agribusiness Viterra Inc, which acquired Australia's ABB Grain Ltd for A$1.6 billion in September 2009, says grain receivals from its Australian operations have been better than expected, The Sydney Morning Herald posted on January, 22.

Viterra president Mayo Schmidt said Viterra was "very optimistic" that it would see a solid recovery in the Australian business in fiscal 2010.

"Receivals to date have already exceeded expectations," Mr Schmidt said in a statement.

Viterra said in relation to its Australian malt business that average margins had stabilised and would migrate to more traditional levels once global demand for malt rose.

"A decision on building the new Minto plant in NSW, previously announced by ABB, is under review by management," Viterra said.

ABB had been planning to build a A$90 million malt house with a capacity of 110,000 tonnes at Minto in south-western Sydney.

Viterra said that it intended to cut the short-term debt of its Australian operations by C$300 million by the end of January 2010.

Viterra said it would use C$300 million (US$286 million) worth of surplus cash to reduce seasonal drawings on the A$1.2 billion operating facility of ABB.

Viterra booked net earnings for its 2009 fiscal year of C$113.1 million (US$107.8 million), compared to C$288.3 million ...More Info

European farmers' switch from wheat to barley will prove even more severe than had been thought, Strategie Grains said in its latest report.

The influential analysis group has significantly trimmed its sowings estimate for barley and cut its production forecast by a further 500,000 tonnes.

Europe's barley prices have remained pressed against intervention levels by huge stocks, which in France, the region's biggest grain producer, are on course to hit 3.9 mln tonnes.

That is nearly as high as inventories of wheat, of which France produces three times as much.

Agritel, the French consultancy, said last week: "Carry out stocks for feed barley [in 2009-10] will be huge", adding that it would take until June next year to clear them, even without fresh crop.

In the UK, the EU's fourth-biggest barley producer, prices have been further placed under pressure by the relative strength of the pound against a euro weakened by concerns over Greece's economy.

"The feed barley market has dropped, not at the same pace as feed wheat, but values in most areas back to £75-£80 [a tonne] ex-farm," Hugh Schryver, at Glencore's UK grain arm, said.

"The euro's weakness doing nothing to help intervention levels which for so long have supported the price."

As of ...More Info

Tomáš Horák, Jiří Čulík, Vladimír Kellner, Marie Jurková and Pavel Čejka

J. Inst. Brew. 115(3), 214–219, 2009 ABSTRACT
Dominant trends in analytical chemistry include miniaturization in sample preparation techniques and faster run times to provide high-throughput screening, fast process monitoring and fast method development. This study focused on the application of narrow bore gas chromatographic capillary columns, 0.18 mm internal diameter, for brewing analyses. On these capillary columns, faster analyses could be performed compared to conventional GC capillary columns using 0.32 to 0.53 mm internal diameters. The robustness of the state-of-the-art faster capillary gas chromatography, without compromising resolution, has been demonstrated with the analyses of beer flavour compounds such as lower and higher alcohols, esters and other volatile compounds such as acetaldehyde and dimethyl sulphide in beer. These methods were able to reduce sample run times by 60%. Key words: analytics, beer, beer flavours, brewing, faster gas chromatography.
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