EU: Prices of malting barley to have a soaring impact on beer consumers throughout Europe

Europe’s heatwave may have eased from its July highs but not soon enough to prevent price increases for beer next year, threatening another headache for the region’s central bankers, Gulf-Times posted August 12.

The prices of malting barley on the Hanover futures exchange in Germany have soared in recent weeks and this is likely to have a direct impact on consumers throughout Europe, industry officials said August 11.

France’s biggest brewer Kronenbourg, a unit of Britain’s Scottish & Newcastle Plc, said it too was braced for higher input prices but would seek to minimise the impact on drinkers. “There will be a strong impact on cereals prices next year of we believe 13 to 14%,” a spokesman said.

16 August, 2006