SABMiller plc, the world’s second-largest brewer, reported on May, 20 its preliminary (unaudited) results for the twelve months to 31 March 2010.

Lager volumes of 213 million hectolitres were in line with the prior year on an organic basis, however, the brewer achieved share gains in many markets.

Group revenue increased by 4% to US$26.35 bln and EBITA was up 6% to US$4.38 bln with margin growth of 30 basis points (bps) driven by robust pricing and cost efficiencies.

SABMiller said raw material costs were marginally higher than the prior year, with cost increases moderating during the second half. Brewing raw material costs began to trend lower later in the year, although packaging and sugar costs continued to rise. Focus was maintained on cost management and productivity, with synergies and cost restructuring benefits offsetting increases in depreciation, paycost inflation and, in some markets, increased investment in brand and retail execution. EBITA also grew 6% on a reported basis, with the significant adverse currency impact in the first half offset in the second half as our major operating currencies appreciated against the US dollar.

The group generated free cash flow of US$2.010 bln, an improvement of US$1.913 bln compared with the prior year. Significant improvements ...More Info

To enhance its competitiveness in Beijing, China's Tsingtao Beer will invest CNY600 million to build a new brewery project in Shijiazhuang, capital of Hebei province, China Retail News reported on May, 21.

Tsingtao Beer has signed an agreement with the management committee of Shijiazhuang Economic and Technological Development Zone to build the new manufacturing base in this zone.

With a planned area of 300 mu, the new project will reportedly have an annual capacity of 400,000 kiloliters of beer and will become a top-level modern brewery in China.

The project will start construction in June 2010 and is expected to be completed in June 2011. On its completion, the new plant will make both Tsingtao Beer and Laoshan Beer, another brand owned by the company, in Shijiazhuang.

According to a company official, the new project will be the company's 54th manufacturing base and also a comparatively large one. In addition, for strategic layout, Tsingtao Beer currently has no plant in the southern areas of Hebei, but the new one in Shijiazhuang will be a good link between its plants in Beijing and Langfang.

Statistics provided by Tsingtao Beer show that the company's revenue from major businesses was CNY4.141 billion in the first quarter ...More Info

Pub beer sales fell by 8.8 per cent in the quarter and overall beer sales were down by 5.1 per cent on the first quarter of 2009, the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) reported on May, 21.

The exceptional and severe weather in January, which prevented many from going to the pub, was the major contributor to the fall in sales, BBPA said.

Given the continuing fragility in the beer market the BBPA is asking the Government not to increase pressure on the sector unnecessarily by increasing beer taxes in the Budget on 22 June. The year-on-year change in beer sales is improving – the rate of decline easing to 3.5 per cent in the year to March 2010 from 4.2 per cent in the year previously – indicating that there are some signs of an underlying improvement in the sector.

The five per cent increase in Beer Duty in the 2010 Budget came into effect as the quarter was ending, with fears that an effective increase of 8 pence per pint is likely to have a further depressive effect on future beer sales. The tax increase put a further cost burden of £161 million on the sector, at a time ...More Info

Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada has boosted the excise tax rate on malt beer by 23.3% or UAH0.14 to UAH0.74 per litre, Ukrainian News reported on May, 20.

By a document entitled "On amendments to several legislative acts (concerning taxation)" the parliament removes from the law on excise tax rates and customs import duty on certain goods (products) the norm, according to which from July 1, 2009 the excise duty on beer was set at UAH0.6 per litre, and set the rate at UAH0.74 per litre.

A total of 246 members of parliament voted for law No. 6337, when 226 votes enough for passage.

Beer output was down 6.2% or 1.98 million hl to 30.05 million hl in Ukraine in 2009 against 2008.

Ukraine's beer market contracted by 7.4% last year, and experts forecast that the beer market may fall by 15 - 20% this year.

According to State Statistics Committee, beer production shrank by 4% in the first quarter of 2010, to 5.32 million hl.

Market operators believe that a rise in prices of water and another increase in excise rates will result in a reduction of beer consumption in Ukraine.

"A rise in sale prices will reduce demand for beer and endanger not only ...More Info

World trade in barley malt in 2009/10 (July/June) is forecast to decline to 5.4 mln tons (grain equivalent), down by 8% from the previous year and 13% below the 2007/08 record, the IGC said in its March Grain Market Report.

The forecast is lowered by 0.3 mln tons from the previous one (November).

The economic downturn has slowed growth in beer demand, with production in mature markets mostly declining in 2009.

Increased domestic production of barley malt in some countries continues to have an impact on global trade.

Russia’s malt imports in 2009/10 are forecast to decline to just 50,000 tons, around 50% lower than the previous year and only a fraction of the 2001/02 peak of 822,000 tons. Domestic malt production has increased sharply over the past decade, while stocks of malt have risen due to the recent decline in beer sales.

Brazil is the world’s largest malt market, with 2009/10 imports forecast unchanged from a year ago, at 1.0 mln tons. While imports may not to match the 2007/08 record, beer consumption continues to expand. This year’s lower-quality malting barley crop in Argentina is also underpinning demand for imported malt. Due to a slow pace of shipments to date, imports ...More Info

EFES Russia has launched a new manufacturing area at its malthouse in Kazan, Kommersant reported on May, 20.

The investments in the project totalled US$28.5 mln. The modernization of the plant allowed for the facility’s total capacity to reach 45 thousand tonnes per year.

The company’s total malt production capacity in Russia thus increased to 175 thousand tonnes, which covers all EFES Russia’s malt needs.

The barley acreage is lower in almost every country of the Northern Hemisphere this year, industry analysts communicated earlier this month.

Feed barley and more so malting barley have been the least rewarding grain crops to farmers in recent years. On the other hand the demand for oilseeds and corn is increasing continuously, driven mainly, but not only by the production of ethanol and bio-diesel.

There have been trials to use barley for ethanol, but so far barley remains a grain, which is used for malting, feed and to a very small extent for food and other purposes.

In China, the USA, Mercosur, South Africa barley is no more than a specialty crop for malting, the development in Europe and Canada goes, albeit slowly, into the same direction.

There are few reliable acreage estimates of winter and spring barley plantings in the EU available yet, a research note communicated at the end of April.

The French official estimate is 440,000 ha of spring barley vs. 564,000 ha a year ago. Total barley fields cover 1.6 mln ha vs. 1.884 last year.

Germany’s Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) said on May, 18 the size of the seeding area for spring barley has declined to the lowest level recorded since 1990.

The area planted to spring barley in Germany has reached just 367.5 thousand ha. The cultivation of winter barley decreased by just under 9% to 1.3 million hectares, Destatis said.

Denmark had anticipated a 12% reduction of spring barley sowings, but winter kill of wheat necessitates larger spring plantings so that spring barley may come out close to last year’s acreage of 450,000 ha, experts believe.

No new estimates are available from the U.K. Last year’s artificially high 750,000 ha of spring barley may fall back to 500,000 ha this year.

As early acreage estimates of other EU countries are lower as well, analysts still count on a 15 – 20% reduction of the EU spring barley plantings. Last year many ...More Info

Huge supplies of both feed and malting barley continue to be a weight around the neck of any significant price rally in the US, but Randy Brag of Valley Grain Services in Casselton does see some light at the end of the tunnel in regards to shrinking the stockpile of barley, The Farm & Ranch Guide reported on May, 20.

“I think we have a dilemma between now and harvest as to where we go with all of this old crop, but this reduction in acres has to be positive for barley down the road,” he said. “When that spot down the road is going to be - who knows. Maybe it's next November or December, or it we could start seeing it in October. And I think the malting side will respond quicker than the feed side.”

The feed barley market has shown a little strength in the past few weeks, he said.

This bump in prices has been the result of few deliveries from the farm, due to farmers working on putting this year's crop in and some of the companies being caught a little short on supply.

Looking on the malting side, large supplies of malting barley continue to depress the ...More Info

A recent report from Mercosur puts the combined barley crops of Argentina and Brazil at 1.7 mln tonnes, of which 600 – 650,000 good quality malting barley, industry sources reported earlier in May.

Needs of malting barley in the two countries are 1.5 mln tonnes, experts estimate.

Therefore the malting industries in both countries use a maximum of low grade barley, but large imports will be necessary as well.

Markets report 125 – 150,000 tons of EU barley sold to-date.

Uruguay reports malting barley receivals of 380,000 tons, which corresponds almost exactly to the maltsters’ demand.

Markus Herrmann, Björn Klotzbücher, Michael Wurzbacher, Stefan Hanke, Udo Kattein, Werner Back, Thomas Becker and Martin Krottenthaler

J. Inst. Brew. 116(1), 41–48, 2010
ABSTRACT
During the last years changes in aging indicators have been observed, supposedly resulting from modern brewing technology. The Research Brewery Weihenstephan (Forschungsbrauerei Weihenstephan) offers excellent opportunities for comparing different modern wort boiling systems under semi-industrial conditions. Employing three different boiling systems, nine brews were produced. The resulting worts were compared regarding the most common wort parameters. Furthermore the influence of the different boiling systems on aging indicators in the resulting beers was analyzed using a newly developed mass spectrometry-based method. The decrease in the total amount of aging indicators in industrial beers over the last years is very likely the result of lower thermal intake in modern brewhouse equipment. The total amount of aging indicators is sufficient to describe the differences in modern boiling systems. In summary, 2-furfural dominates all other indicators in terms of thermal influence. 2-Furfuryl ethyl ether can be suggested as good indicator of aging as postulated by Eichhorn, whereas â-damascenone is questionable as an aging indicator. Supplementary experiments were carried out to investigate the role of the aging indicators as stale flavour components. Because of synergistic effects, many stale flavour compounds act as aroma compounds and not only as indicators. Key words: Aging indicators, beer flavour, boiling systems, brewhouse, synergistic effects, wort. Load full article, 8 pages, 482 kb , PDF file