Czech brewery Budejovicky Budvar is closer to entering the Chinese market after a Beijing court turned down lawsuits filed by its rival Anheuser-Busch, Budvar spokesman Petr Samec told CTK July 12.

A Beijing court rejected Anheuser-Busch's protest against a verdict passed by a trademark and arbitration commission which permitted the registration of the Budejovicky Budvar trademarks in China last year.

The court ruled the Budejovicky Budvar trademarks are not interchangeable with the Budweiser and Bud trademarks, owned by Anheuser-Busch in China.

The decision has not taken effect yet. Anheuser-Busch can file an appeal, but Budvar is optimistic.

"The latest court verdict is an important step towards a definitive registration of our trademarks. We have got significantly closer to the moment the Chinese market will open for us," said Samec.

The dispute between Anheuser-Busch and Budvar started in 1906. At present, it involves about 40 court disputes and over 70 administrative proceedings at patent offices.

Baltika is considering building a brewery in Belarus, Interfax communicated July 12. As it was mentioned earlier, in May 2006 the Russian brewery announced that it was ready to consider the proposals of Belarusian officials and privately owned enterprises over the establishment of a joint venture, the Ukrainian Agency of Industrial News communicated July 12.

The Belarusian government replicated Baltika by inviting it to participate in “Belsolod” reconstruction. According to a long-term development plan of the brewing industry of Belarus, a brewery with a capacity of 400,000 hl of beer per year is planed to be established on the basis of the largest malting plant of Belarus.

JSC “Belsolod” was established in 1998 on the grounds of Ivanovsk malting plant which begun malting in early 1989. The malting plant implemented the “Golden Stock” in June 2005 allowing the Belarusian government to participate during one year in company’s management.

Belsolod is Belarus largest malt facility. 80% of its production is being currently exported. In 2005, the company produced over 60,000 t of malt. Its aggregate annual capacity is 85,000 t of malt.

Sales of imported beer increased by 29 pct in 1Q of 2006 while sales of Latvian beer are reducing, Dienas Bizness communicated July 12.

At the same time local breweries have increased their exports for 24 pct.

According to the data from the State Revenue office, in 1Q of 2006 the consumption of beer in Latvia has increased by 2.79 pct, but sales of local brews decreased by 0.6 pct.

“Actually, only strength of Latvian made beer has increased on average from 5.5 pct last year to 5.6 pct this year,” Revenue Service report states.

At present imported beer takes 15 pct of the Latvian beer market, but growth of volumes of imported beer, has started to reduce gradually. In 2005 the volume of imported beer had increased by 84 pct in comparison with year 2004.

Latvian producers had quite successful 1Q due to the growing volumes of exported beer. In 1Q of 2006 the beer exports have increased by 23.8 pct if compared with the same period last year.

EU malt exporters booked 2.18 million t of export licences from July 1, 2005, till June 27, 2006, analysts said. The figure may still be corrected somewhat to complete the crop year, but in any case a loss of 40,000 t against the export figure of 2004/05 is considered a satisfactory result after the loss of the largest part of the Russian market.

Maltsters can now calculate on a steady export volume for the new crop year and stable or even larger domestic sales. Production in 2005/06 of around 8.2 million t barely matched the sales volume. The figure corresponds to 93.5 % of the existing malting capacity.

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published on July 13 its latest forecast and estimation of world barley trade in 2006/2007and 2005/2006:

2006/2007 Australia barley export is lowered 500,000 tons to 4.8 million as sharply lower production is only partially offset by robust carryin stocks.

2006/2007 Russia barley export is raised 200,000 tons to 2.2 million on a larger expected crop.

2006/2007 Turkey barley export is cut 150,000 tons to only 50,000 tons, as a smaller crop largely eliminates exportable surplus.

2006/2007 Ukraine barley export is up 300,000 tons to a record 4.3 million as production is raised this month.

2006/2007 United States barley export is down 100,000 tons to 400,000 tons as a result of reduced exportable supplies.

2006/2007 United States barley import is up 100,000 tons to 400,000 as production is lowered.

2005/2006 Tunisia barley import is raised 100,000 tons to 500,000 with robust imports to date, primarily from the European Union.

Estimates of the Spanish barley crop provide meager results for this season. Local sources speak of poor yields, very low hl-weight, and indicate a crop size below 7 million tons, analysts communicated. Earlier estimates are still above 8 million t. The summer heat started very early this year in Spain and affected the ripening crops in Castilla-La-Mancha and Castilla y Leon, the centre of Spanish grain production. According to local sources malting barley imports will be necessary.

As earlier reported, at the end of the grain year 2005/06 EU barley statistics look disappointing. Exports were 2.87 million tons vs. 3.47 million t in 2004/05. Intervention stocks increased by 800,000 tons to 2.3 million t in spite of export and domestic sales of 1.7 million t. Exports against “zero refund” licences amounted to 886,000 t and experts estimate that less than half of that quantity was malting barley.