Chinese brewery, Tsingtao Beer, has put its plant in Yulin, Shaanxi Province into production on July 8, just a couple of days after it laid the foundation of its production base with capacity of 400,000 kiloliters in Chengdu, Sichuan Province in Southwest China, SinoCast reported July 12.

The Yulin brewery in the northern part of the northwestern province has production capacity of 100,000 kiloliters annually, and it is expected to generate sales revenues of CNY 300 million and more than CNY 50 million of profits every year, serving as a new growth point for both Tsingtao Beer and the local economy.

Based on a principle of first taking the market and then building the plant, Tsingtao Beer has established a solid and sustainable mode of development.

The latest-commissioned Yulin brewery will help consolidate Tsingtao Beer's market shares in Shaaxi Province, which will also expand the brewery giant's influence into neighboring markets including those in Shanxi, Henan, Sichuan, Gansu provinces and Ningxia autonomous regions, and therefore it will play an important role for the company to win competitions in central and the western parts of the country.

Belarus produced 13.557 million dl of beer in January-May 2007, up 12.6% compared to the same period of 2006, Belgospishcheprom, the Belarusian state food concern, told Interfax, June 22.

Increased production is linked to a rise in consumption and higher production capacity at various companies, a Belgospishcheprom spokesman said.

Over half of the beer produced in January-May came from the Krinitsa and Olivaria breweries, which produced 5.8 million dl (down 4%).

The Syabar brewery produced 2.291 million dal of beer, twice as much as last year, Lidskoye Pivo produced 1.542 million dal, up 20.7%, Brestkoye Pivo produced 1.045 million dal, up 12.7%, and Rechitsapivo produced 1 million dl, up 5.8%.

Belarus produced 72.2% of its beer in PET bottles - 7.78 million dl. Beer in glass bottles totalled 2.99 million dal, beer in kegs ? 646 thousand dal and canned beer ? 132,000 dl.

Belarus has 12 breweries with combined capacity to produce 488 million dl of beer annually.

Belarus produced 332 million dl of beer in 2006, up 22.2%.

The leader on the Slovak beer market, Hurbanovo-based brewery Heineken Slovensko, reported an annual 10 percent increase in beer sales in the first half of this year, selling more than 875,000 hectoliters of beer, Slovak Spectator published July 12.

This was part of the Slovak beer market?s 6 percent sales growth in H1 2007, Roman Krajniak of Heineken told the SITA newswire.

?Heineken increased its market share in each of the first six months of 2007, reaching 41.5 percent in late June," Krajniak said.

The Slovak beer market has fallen behind in the lastseveral years, but started stabilizing in H2 2006. "The first half of 2007 has also confirmed we?re returning from the negative territory of the last few years," Krajniak said.

The producers of Tuborg, Carlsberg and Neumarkt beer brands have ended beer exports to the Republic of Moldova, as a result of new customs regulations, which stipulate that a tax of 25 euros per hectolitre of beer must be levied, Ziarul Financiar published July 13.

Before Romania's integration into the European Union, there were no customs duties between the two states. Following the introduction of these duties, Bere Mures will lose around 600,000 euros a year, given that exports to Moldova accounted for about 1-2% of the producer's turnover, which stood at 60m euros in 2006. "Currently, the customs duties paid at the border with Moldova stand at 25 euros per hectolitre of beer.

Following the enforcement of these customs duties, since the end of 2006 we have decided to redirect Tuborg and Carlsberg exports to Russia. Romania continues to export Skol beer to the Republic of Moldova," said Shachar Shaine, president of URBB.

This year's U.S. barley crop is expected to up around 231 million bushels, 28% above 2006 and 9% higher than 2005, according to the latest USDA crop production estimates, SNS reported July 12.

Based on conditions as of July 1, the average yield for the U.S. is forecast at 65.2 bushels per acre, up 4.2 bushels from last year. Expected area to be harvested as grain or seed, at 3.54 million acres, is up 20% from 2006. Production is expected to be up in all of this year's top seven producing States.

North Dakota's production forecast, at 82.4 million bushels, is 69% above last year and 44% higher than 2005. If realized, the barley yield in North Dakota will be the third highest on record. In Idaho and Montana, expected production is up 5 and 27%, respectively, from last year.

The Czech Statistical Office CSU said this year's grain harvest will be about 5.8 percent higher than last year, according to CTK, July 11.

In their first estimate of 2007 harvest as of June 20, statisticians put the grain harvest at 6.102 million tonnes.

About 1.21 million tonnes of spring barley, the second most widely grown arable crop, will be harvested this year, a fall of 20 percent on the year, which statisticians blamed on a drop in the sowing area by 13.3 percent and a 7.6 percent fall of the per hectare yield to 3.28 tonnes on average.

Total barley production, including wheat barley, will decrease by 7.5 percent to 1.75 million tonnes.

Miroslav Jirovsky, chairman of the Agricultural Association, said the grain harvest projection is an average one. Taking into account the construction of facilities to produce biofuels, demand can be higher than supply. Grain prices, now higher than a year ago, should not go down after the harvest, as it happened in the past, said Jirovsky.

The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has included barley in a list of commodities subject to state price regulation, which will make it possible for the Agriculture Ministry to set limit prices for these kinds of grain, AgroBel reported June 28.

A corresponding decision was passed by the government at a meeting on June 26, Agriculture Policy Minister Yuriy Melnyk told reporters.

"The Cabinet has passed the list [on commodities subject to state price regulation], and now it is the Agriculture Ministry's prerogative to calculate floor and ceiling prices. We'll issue an order to enforce the prices," he said.

The minister said that the level of prices might be passed within the week.

Melnyk said this decision was made because of possible purchases of this crop for the state food reserve. The gross [barley] harvest will be considerably less than last year's, appropriate actions are needed, he said.

The Ukrainian government previously retained state price regulations for the 2007-2008 marketing year on wheat, rye and sugar.

Later, a government commission on agricultural issues proposed including corn, barley, sunflower seeds, meat, dry milk and butter in the list of commodities subject to state price regulation by making amendments to the law on state support to Ukrainian agriculture.