Beer drinkers in South Africa are becoming increasingly frustrated as both Amstel and Heineken products have been in short supply, UPI reported May 6.

The beer shortages began in March when Dutch brewer Heineken stopped allowing a regional distributor to brew and sell Amstel Lager after nearly 40 years of producing the alcoholic beverage, The Cape Argus reported Sunday.

Many beer drinkers turned to the Heineken as a temporary replacement and Heineken became scarce throughout the nation.

"Amstel used to be our number-one seller, but when we could no longer obtain that we found many drinkers turned to Heineken and that became the number one," said Annie Barendse, a bar manager in Cape Town.

Heineken has plans to build a local brewery in South Africa in the future, but said in March that it would take nearly five months for Amstel bottles to become available, the Cape Argus said.

The worker's union at Heineken Brewery in St. Petersburg ended an Italian strike during talks with brewery officials on Friday, Alexei Veleulov, chairman of the union, said in a statement, according to Interfax News Agency, May 4.

The brewery's workers said on April 13 that they were planning to hold an Italian strike, a method in which factory workers meticulously adhere to all instructions and regulations and do not work overtime. The workers are demanding a 30% increase in their salaries and an 8%-10% raise for occupational hazards.

Heineken's press service told Interfax that the union's demands would be considered within a month in accordance with Russian legislation.

Heineken owns ten breweries in various parts of Russia. Heineken began working in Russia in 2002, when it acquired St. Petersburg brewer Bravo International. In 2004 and 2005, the Dutch company acquired the Sobol brewery in Novosibirsk, the Shikhan brewery in Sterlitamak, the Volga brewery in Nizhny Novgorod, Patra in Yekaterinburg, St. Petersburg's Stepan Razin, the Baikal brewery in Irkutsk, Amur-Pivo in Khabarovsk, and PIT with its breweries in Kaliningrad and the Orenburg region.

A Brazilian court has ordered local brewer Ambev to pay 100,000 reals (US$49,400; euro36,400) to an alcoholic beer taster who drank about a liter and a half (3.2 pints) of beer each day, Associated Press reported May 6.

The unidentified employee alleged that the company did not provide the health measures needed to keep him from developing alcoholism, a labor court in the Rio Grande do Sul state said in a statement Friday.

The employee said in his lawsuit that for more than a decade, he drank between 16 and 25 small glasses of beer during his eight-hour shifts at the company

The employee said he also received a bottle of beer after each shift.

An initial ruling had favored Ambev, or Companhia de Bebidas das Americas, which can still appeal the decision. The company alleged the employee already was an alcoholic before becoming a beer taster.

Judge Jose Felipe Ledur said the company still was negligent because an alcoholic should never have been made a beer taster.

Ledur also said the employee's alcohol dependency had worsened in recent years and that even on vacation, the employee felt like drinking the same amount of beer he drank at work.

During the month of April domestic prices inched up to EUR 385,- for delivery 2008, CPT breweries. Export prices of the EU, Canada and Australia were close in the range of EUR 375,- to 385,- FOB in bulk in container, at the end of the month business was done at EUR 420,-.

Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and African groups purchased large quantities during the month, Brazil bought additional needs for this calendar year. Carlsberg commenced negotiations. Most large brewery groups purchased parts of their demand. There was a mixture of contracts, fixed malt prices for a one year contract, LTA’s with fixed malting margins, but open barley and energy prices, to name a few.

Warning: These prices are not in force at present, at the end of April barley markets exploded, and most maltsters retired from selling, until weather, barley crop prospects and barley price levels become clearer and safer again. It is doubted that malt prices will return to former levels.

Maltsters booked precisely 1.5 million tonnes of export licences from July 1, 2006 until April 26, 2007, versus 1.81 million tonnes a year ago, a minus of 310,000 tonnes.

At the pace of exports up-to-date total export shipments of the crop year would reach 1.8 million tonnes, almost 400,000 tonnes less than in 2006/07. Nevertheless, malt seems to be sold out for 2007, there is no pressure on malt markets.

EU feed barley supplies are very tight, price levels are too high to compete in world markets with the Black Sea. Only during the winter, when the Ukrainian government had strangled the export business, the EU was a large exporter, the total has reached almost 3.1 million tonnes by now. Lately exports include malting barley, guesses are upto 200,000 tonnes to Russia.

Barley intervention stocks have dwindled from 2.2 million tonnes at the beginning of the grain year to 400,000 tonnes now. Only 1,500 tonnes of barley were tendered to intervention during this grain year. The intervention price (EUR 101.31 per ton), once the secure bottom of barley markets, has no importance at present and most likely for a long time to come. In the major deficit region of Holland and Northwest Germany markets are between EUR 150,- and 155,- delivered compound factories for old and new crop positions. The new crop market rendu Rouen is EUR 136,-, basis July.

In April Australia recorded rainfalls between 5 and 25 mm in the grain areas, virtually all of it in the past 7 days. The rains were very welcome as a break of the draught period and enabled first plantings of barley. Follow-up rain is needed, the more so as the long dryness had left seedbeds in a very poor shape.

Long-term weather forecasts should always be taken with great caution, but the Australian May-July forecast does not look good. The ABARE crop estimate of 9 million tonnes of barley must be hoped for, but is far from certain at this time. Markets are calm, Australian malting barley quotes of US$ 320,- CIF China stir no reaction.