An eventual S&N takeover by Carlsberg and Heineken could place the last on the second position on the Belgium beer market, after InBev, Trends published October 18.

The consequences for the beer market: Alken-Maes’s beers (hapkin, Ciney, Grimbergen, Cristal, Judas, Mort Subite…) will change the owner, ass well as the beers of French Kronenbourg. Alken-Maes’s production is still lower than that of giant InBev.

Heineken is the owner of De Smedt a Opwilk brewery in Flemish Brabant, Belgium.

Ochakovo, one of Russia's top six breweries, increased beer exports 71% year-on-year to 1.2 million liters in the third quarter of 2007, the company said in a press release.

The growth included exports of premium beer brands, Ochakovo said.

The company increased overall exports in the third quarter by 70% in value and 66.6% by volume. The growth is attributed to growing sales of Ochakovsky kvass, which makes up 40% of exports and jumped nearly 70% to 800,000 liters.

The beer output continues to be fantastic in Asia except for Japan, in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe; Russia produced 25 % more beer in Jan/July than a year ago, Ukraine 17,8 % more in Jan/August and Poland 12 % more in the same period, the analyst recently reported.

Only in Western Europe cold and rainy summer weather spoiled the earlier euphoria, Germany (minus 1,1 %), France and Spain report disappointing sales figures. This has even led to a slower off-take of malt in some cases, enabling maltsters to make small additional sales. They had no problem to dispose quickly of any free quantities. Such sales were reported to Southeast Asia and North Africa.

On the global level, dry conditions in the Black Sea Region and Australia have diminished new-crop feed barley supplies, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, October 12. Furthermore, export restrictions by the Ukraine government and reduced feed barley export from Australia are largely constraining world export supplies.

Combined with strong import demand, particularly from the Middle East, world prices will remain high. Weather events over major producing regions will continue to play a major role in the level and variability of prices for feed barley.

Barley yields were low all over the Continental EU, also the grain size leading to high percentages of screenings, according to analysts, October 1.

The selection of spring malting barley is lower than in normal years, specifically in France, where cooperatives are obliged to buy back pre-harvest sales. Protein contents are high on the Continent, ranging from an average of 12 % in France to 13 – 15 % in Southeast Europe. Local problems of fusarium, pregermination and sprouting complete the mediocre crop result.

The U.K. and especially Scandinavia did much better, good grain size, correct proteins, but their surplus is not large enough to stabilize the EU supply and demand situation.

After years of low prices, Washington hop growers have a chance for big profits - if they only had more of the bitter flowers to sell to beer makers, AP State reported October 18.

Ann George of the Washington Hop Commission in Moxee says worldwide production is down for the first time in a decade. Prices are up, but many hop growers have switched to other crops or sold their land for development.

In the Yakima Valley, which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. hop production, there were 60 growers with 27,000 acres in 2000. That's down to 36 growers with 23,000 acres.