Japan's Asahi Breweries Ltd. said July 20 that it will spend Y22.5 billion over the next three years in an effort to streamline plant operations and scale down costs on a group basis, Easy Bourse released July 20.

Asahi Breweries, the nation's biggest beer maker in terms of annual beer shipments, said it will add new facilities to produce soft drink and low-alcohol products at its beer-making plant in Ibaraki, north of Tokyo.

The company will shift its Asahi Soft Drinks Co. unit's soft drink production and distribution facilities in Kashiwa, also north of Tokyo, to the Ibaraki plant.

Another of the beverage maker's units, Nikka Whisky Distilling Co., will transfer most of its low-alchohol drink manufacturing to the new facilities in Ibaraki as well.

Asahi expects these steps will benefit the company, estimating a cost cutback of Y5 billion annually on a group basis.

Vietnam's beer industry is growing at an annual rate of about 8-10 per cent and will produce 1.5 billion litres by 2010, according to a Health Ministry's research institute, Asia Pulse News released July 20.

The current beer output is 1.2 billion litres a year, while alcohol consumption in the country is 350 million litres per year, said the Institute for Health care Strategy and Policies, adding that the real figures may be higher due to unregistered alcohol production.

On average, Vietnamese consume 16 litres of beer and four litres of hard alcohol per year.

Denmark's second-largest brewer Royal Unibrew AS is mounting a challenge to the number one player Carlsberg AS in the Danish market for imported and specialty beers, according to a report in the Boersen daily citing Royal Unibrew chief executive Poul Moeller, AFX reported July 19.

Carlsberg has a share of almost 40 percent of this lucrative market through a subsidiary called House of Beer, but Royal Unibrew has set up Xbeer with the aim of winning at least 20 percent of the market by the end of next year.

"We expect to win 10 to 20 percent of the market for specialty beers by the end of 2007," Moeller said, adding that the move is part of the company's wider programme started in 2005 to boost sales by 50 percent by 2007.

The market for imported and specialty beers has grown by 33 percent a year on average, and is expected to reach 10 to 12 percent of total beer sales within a few years, Boersen said.

In 2005 beer output increased year-on-year by 3 %, or by 45.8 million hl up to 1.598 billion hl, 2006 Barth Report has recently posted.

Of that amount, China contributed by far the largest share, with an increase of 15.2 million hl. In Europe, Ukraine (+6.4m hl.) and Russia (+4.0m hl.) provided with the strong growth, while the UK, on the other hand, registered a significant drop of 2.9 million hl.

The increase of beer output in America is accounted for in Brazil (+4.4m hl.) and Mexico (+4m hl.). In the USA, output fell by 2.2m hl.

A drop of 2.1m hl in Japan slightly reduced the above-average growth in Asia compared with the rest of the world. Africa shows the highest growth of all continents in percentage terms, with 4.9 %.

JSC “Belsolod” announced a tender among suppliers of brewing equipment as it went forwardly on its plans to construct a brewery with an annual capacity of 400,000 hl of beer, The Union of Russian Brewers communicated July 17. As officials from the Belarusian embassy in Moscow sated, the results of the tender will be released in August this year.

The brewery construction will cost almost EUR25 million. Foreign investors are expected to bring their participation to this project. Works on the ground are estimated to begin in 2006-2007.

The feasibility of this project is justified by the presence of Belsolod’s own large malting capacities.

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.

For 2005-2006, Brazilian barley imports are estimated at 150,000 tonnes (t) and are consumed domestically as feed. For 2006- 2007, Brazilian barley imports are forecast to be similar to 2005-2006, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada released in its be-weekly bulletin of July 14.

Canadian malt exports to Brazil have decreased significantly since 1997-1998, when exports reached the highest of 114,000 t. Competition from cheaper, lower quality EU malt and preferential treatment for Mercosur countries are the major factors contributing to declining market shares for Canada.

For 2005-2006, Canadian malt exports to Brazil are expected to be similar to 2004-2005 at 27,000 t. For 2006-2007, Brazilian malt imports are forecast to be similar to 2005-2006 with Canadian malt exports to Brazil unchanged from last year.

Brazilian oat production for 2006-2007 is projected at 0.5 Mt, down marginally from 2005-2006. The majority of oats used in Brazil are also consumed as feed, with very little used for food use.

Most estimates of the EU malting barley selection show a surplus of 300,000 – 500,000 tons of spring barley and a similar amount of winter malting barley. That is not much, when one hopes for rather normal exports of half a Million tons, experts believe.

Recently even more negative S/D balances appeared. Also provisional balance shows that the EU malting industry must count on very good crops in France, Germany and the U.K., and hopefully better results in Scandinavia and Spain than forecast at present.

EU malting barley markets will be tight, lower price levels will hardly materialize. The expected further acreage reduction in 2007 will add fuel to a steady or firmer market trend.

Winter barley harvest was around 50-60% complete, according to Grainfarmers East Anglia regional manager Stephen Howlett on Tuesday 18 July, Farmers Weekly Interactive communicated July 18.

“The crop appears to have held on reasonably well, although yields are probably 0.25t/acre (0.6t/ha) down on last year.”

Grain nitrogen levels were variable, he said. “They range from 1.6% to 1.9%, but it is not different to normal. It is not going to be a vintage year.”

Malting barley varieties Pearl and Flagon were very comparable, while feed barley Carat had done well. “It’s got big bold grain.”

Screenings ranged from 4-10% with retentions in the high 70s, low 80s, he said. “We haven’t seen anything absolutely horrendous.

“My overall comment would be it is not as bad as we would possibly have thought, but who knows about the wheats and spring crops.”

Spring barley was a particular concern, he added. “I’ve seen my first sample this morning and it very thin. Screenings were 14-15%. Everything is dying off in the intense heat.”