The brewery Starobrno, subsidiary to the Netherland's Heineken group, generated profit of CZK 70 million in the first half of 2007, up 117 percent year-on-year, on sales growth of 9.2 percent to CZK 680 million, spokeswoman Katerina Eliasova told CTK, August 29.

Starobrno's share of the beer and non-alcoholic drinks market increased to 5.3 percent, and it is the third biggest producer in the country.

The lower profit for last year's Jan-June period was due to technology upgrade investment worth Kc115m, said Eliasova, adding that the company will invest in new technologies also this year.

The profit growth this year was caused by a very good weather which raised consumption of beer and non-alcoholic drinks.

Beer output rose by nearly 10 percent to 471,000 hl, and exports totalled 35,000 hl of beer, up 4.5 percent on the year.

Major buyer countries were Sweden, Austria, Germany, Bulgaria, Russia and Britain.

Sales of all kinds of drinks grew by 49,000 to 548,000 hl.

Starobrno employed 399 staff last year, 2.4 percent less year-on-year.

SABMiller PLC, the world's second largest brewer, is looking into acquisitions in Germany to boost sales of its premium beer brands in that country, the head of SABMiller's European business Alan Clark said in an interview with Financial Times Deutschland on September 3rd, according to Thomson Financial.

'Germany is interesting because of its size. But up to now we have not seen any potentially attractive acquisition target,' the paper quoted Clark as saying. 'I'm sure there are possibilities of acquisitions.'

Germany and the UK are the two national markets in Europe the company plans to expand in, he said. 'We will concentrate on the premium market segment in Germany,' he added.

SABMiller, which has annual volume sales of 210,000 hectolitres of beer in Germany through its Pilsner Urquell brand, aims to lift sales in the country to 1-2 mln hectolitres 'in the long term,' he said.

SABMiller is focusing on the higher end of the Western European beer market because it is growing, despite an overall decline in beer consumption in the region, Clark told the newspaper.

Beer consumption is forecast to grow by between 5% and 8% each year during 2007-11, helped by continued firm economic growth and the introduction of new brands, The Economist Intelligence Unit posted on September 3rd.

Cervecerias Chile (CCh), which introduced the Brahma brand in September 2005, started to sell the Stella Artois and Becks brands in late 2006; other new imported labels are expected to be introduced during the forecast period.

According to ACNielsen, a market research firm, Brahma helped CCh to increase its market share by 4.5 percentage points to 15.6% in 2005, with almost all the rest taken by Compania Cervercerias Unidas (CCU), a Chilean company owned by Heineken, which has a virtual monopoly and manages a diverse brand portfolio. CCUs Cristal brand on its own accounts for slightly over 50% of the market.

State-owned Budejovicky Budvar could be partially sold off with a strategic shareholder preferably brought in, said the Czech minister of agriculture Petr Gandalovic in a debate on the country's public television network, AFX News Limited reported Septemeber 2.

'We can perhaps sell a minority stake to a strategic investor or on the Prague stock exchange,' Gandalovic said.

In the long term, Gandalovic said he believed a strategic investor should be brought in to run the country's third biggest brewer.

He added that whatever changes the government planned to introduce at the brewer it would do everything possible to ensure its trademarks were protected.

The transformation of Budejovicky Budvar into a shareholder company should be completed by April, Gandalovic said.

Deputy Prime Minister Jiří Čunek said he was opposed to the privatization.

Malt offers for 2007 do not exist and are very scarce for 2008. EU nominal prices are EUR 500,- ex works, 520,-/530,- FOB. Australian/Canadian quotes are US$ 680,-/700,- FOB.

Markets are in panic, all EU grains are at unprecedented high price levels. Same is true for world markets with one important exception: North and South American maize cost half the price of wheat and barley, but the EU does not import GMO maize from the USA and Argentina, market analysts commented on September 3rd.

The production side does not look so bleak, as per IGC the world will harvest 1,653 Mill. tons of grains, 86 Mill. tons more than last year. 59 Mill. tons of the larger production are maize. Consumption will be higher again than production at 1,670 Mill. tons, driven by the fast growing industrial usage of grains.

Malting Barley prices in the EU export markets were on August 30th:
France, basis July, 2rS FOB Creil EUR 305,-, FOB Moselle 315,-, 6rW EUR 30/35 less.
Crop 2008, basis July, FOB Creil, 2rS EUR 255,-.
Denmark, basis 1HOct, 2rS, Fob Seaport coaster sizes EUR 291,-, crop 2008 EUR 247,-.

Reports are that French farmers pre-contracted a lower volume for 2008 than for this year’s crop. The general belief in the EU is that malting barley acres – winter and spring – will be expanded for next crop, although a lack of winter barley seeds is feared in France and Germany.

US weather conditions have also been generally conducive for a good crop. But also the US has suffered from strong rain and hail storms. In early July, a short but severe hail storm hit the Northern Idaho growing region resulting in estimated crop losses of approx. 50% on several 100 hectares, Joh. Barth & Sohn GmbH & Co. KG commented in its Hop Market Telegram of August 2007.

Prolonged rains in Oregon in the middle of August caused the collapse of more than 100 ha of hop trellis. The estimated losses from these storms are likely to exceed 1 million lbs (450 mt) of hops. The estimate of the US crop based the official USDA acreage survey and visual appearance is 27.850 mt compared to 26.166 mt in 2006 and 24.001 mt in 2005.