SABMiller, the world's second-biggest brewer, has acquired 94.7 percent of Grolsch NV shares, securing its 816 million euro ($1.2 billion) takeover of the Dutch brewer, Reuters reported February 6.

SABMiller, which has offered to buy Grolsch at 48.25 euros a share, said in a statement on Wednesday its bid was unconditional and shareholders who had not yet offered their shares could tender them until February 20.

About 79.9 percent of shares were tendered by Grolsch shareholders, in addition to 14.8 percent of shares it had bought, SABMiller said.

SABMiller had secured support from the key family shareholders which owned 37 percent of the Dutch brewer before making its bid.

The deal is a sign of consolidation in the global brewing industry as brewers look to cut costs as input prices for malting barley and aluminum cans have risen and to create a bigger platform for their top brands.

London-based SABMiller, which makes Miller Lite, Castle and Peroni beers, has said it planned to expand the Grolsch brand across Africa and Latin America, where the premium beer market is still in its infancy.

The Dutch company is best known for its Grolsch premium pilsner and its green swing-top bottles, first introduced in 1897. Grolsch currently makes the ...More Info

Japan's Asahi Breweries Ltd posted a 2 percent fall in operating profit for, hit by a sharp increase in malt and aluminium prices, and it sees a profit rise for 2008, according to Reuters, February 5.

Japan's biggest beer company said its 2007 operating profit was 87 billion yen, marking the third straight year of profit decline, though the firm had managed to keep its domestic beer shipments at the previous year's level in the face of a continued fall in the overall market.

Faced with rising raw materials costs, Asahi and its rivals have decided to raise prices of beer sold in Japan this year -- the first price hike in 18 years.

For 2008, the brewer, known for "Super Dry" beer, forecast an operating profit of 92 billion yen, up 5.8 percent from last year and compared with an 89.6 billion yen consensus in a poll of 14 analysts by Reuters Estimates.

Hit by an ageing population and diversifying tastes, Japan's beer market has been in decline for more than a decade, with total volume shrinking more than 10 percent since the peak in 1994.

Defection from beer is likely to accelerate this year due to price hike. Asahi has said it expects ...More Info

SP Brewery announced it will invest K90 million to expand production at its breweries in Port Moresby and Lae, The National published February 5. It is the brewery’s largest investment in its two plants in over two decades.

“The expenditure has been approved due to the company’s confidence in the growth of the local market, caused largely by the positive economic conditions,” SP Brewery (SPB) board chairman Sir Joseph Tauvasa said yesterday.

“The 2008 National Budget parameters handed down by the Somare Government has given the confidence to the board of SPB to further invest in the company’s infrastructure, namely the expansion and upgrading of our brewing facilities,” he added.

“Capacity will be increased from 60 million litres to 95 million litres during the period which the (SPB) board believes to be sufficient to cater for growing domestic demand servicing our export ambitions to Pacific Island countries, Australia and beyond.”

This is the company’s first major investment since the late 1980s. According to Sir Joseph, the investment project would be spread over three years which the company hoped would limit disruptions to its operations.

“The expanded brewery (facilities) will allow us to produce our brands more efficiently and help us meet competitive threats should the need ...More Info

Bulgaria's brewery 'Boliarka VT' (Veliko Turnovo) launches beer export to the USA, money.bg informed February 6.

First quantities of beer will go to the gambling Mecca of Las Vegas this spring, reported Anton Nenov, executive director of 'Boliarka VT'.

The state of Nevada was chosen due to the biggest Bulgarian colony in the States.

The export will include almost the entire portfolio of the brewery - light, dark and special beer.

The brewery works in Veliko Turnovo city (Central Bulgaria) is the biggest beer exporter in Bulgaria. Last years' export was 58,000 hectoliters ('Bolirka VT' - 33,000).

About 6% of the produced beer is for the foreign market, mainly for South Romania. The export started in April last year

Greece and Spain also import Bulgarian Boliarka beer.

According to the brewery data the sold beer in 2007 is 10% more compared to the previous year. The brewery stands at 4th place in the country.

The incomes from sales for 2007 were 35 million BGN (17 million EUR). Round 3 million EUR will be invested in 2008 in new equipment and repairs of storage rooms.

Coopers Brewery has opened up new export markets into Sweden and Vietnam, according to company’s press release, February 6.

The first shipments of beer to the two countries left Adelaide this month (February) and are expected to arrive in the next two to three weeks.

Coopers Chairman and Marketing Director, Mr Glenn Cooper, said the consignment to Sweden comprised four containers of Stout and resulted from Coopers winning a quota to supply beer from the Swedish Government.

“In Sweden, the government regulates the sale and distribution of all alcohol and exporters need quotas before they can send product to that country,” he said. “The Swedish government recently tendered for the supply of Stout and we were successful in obtaining a quota.”

Mr Cooper said Coopers already exported beer directly into Finland and Norway as well as Belgium and Germany.

He said the shipment of Pale Ale, Sparkling Ale and Stout being sent to Vietnam had been arranged through the Annan Group, a specialist gourmet retailer. Mr Cooper said that while Coopers beers had previously been sold in Vietnam, they had been sent there by agents based in Singapore and Malaysia.

Exports accounted for 3% of Coopers total sales during 2006-07.

France is one of the world’s leaders in the field of barley and malt, but it should organize better to be sure of maintaining its leadership, AGRA Press reported February 3.

“In a free world market, France has the infrastructure and the expertise in the network barley-malt-beer, that ranks it among the leaders”, according to Philippe Lehrmann from Boortmalt group.

France malt production constitutes 15% of European Union’s total production and the malt export is of 30%.

The 2006/2007 production campaign hasn’t brought the forecasted results both in volumes and quality. The prices exploded and destabilized the existing weak equilibrium. The trading logic is no longer applicable to current market conditions. The volatility has taken control of the sector and the trading conditions should be reviewed in order to resist the market mutation.

One of the solutions for that are the “option contracts” very popular in colza. In this type of contract each party fixes its own price on the future market independently of the other. The system will allow each unit of the network to manage the price volatility.

Market commenced rather quiet, everyone watching France which “played” firm without real turnover, H. Abildstrøm & Co ApS reported February 4. Then in the middle of the month some brewers again took some malt for 08-09 which immediately was felt in the barley market here advancing prices for crop 07 by 3€ and 08 by 4-7 €.

Crop 2007

A few cargoes were changing hands, mainly trading house sellers. Recently during the latest weeks, however, we have seen Swedish, Finnish and Danish farmers showing up with minor quantities which have had a dampening effect on the prices here.

Rumours and concrete information about weak germinative energy have been spreading since November 07 and definitely there are problems here and there in Denmark, a little bit in Sweden and we hear also found in south of England. This is not caused by bad handling, late drying or cooling but apparently the play of the nature which did not accept to land exactly on the contracted 95% of 5 days but rather between 2-3% below and 3-4% above. Our opinion: for every 1% lower than 95% germination the maltsters can expect a considerable amount of barley (30 – 60.000 ts ?) to be ...More Info

While area seeded to barley is forecast to increase marginally from 2007-2008, production is projected to increase by 10% to 12.1 Mt, assuming trend yields, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, January 30. Total supply is expected to increase at a slower pace, as a result of lower carry-in stocks.

Domestic feed consumption is projected to increase, as a result of increased supplies and lower prices. Assuming normal crop quality, barley exports, including exports of barley products, are expected to decrease to 2.4 Mt, from 2.8 Mt for 2007-2008. Feed barley exports are forecast to decrease significantly, as exportable supplies increase for both Australia and the Black Sea region.

Carry-out stocks are expected to rise by over 20% to 1.6 Mt. Domestic feed barley prices are forecast to decrease by $20/t, from a record high expected for 2007-2008 of $205/t for 1CW, I/S Lethbridge. The CWB pool returns for malting and feed barley are projected to decrease.

The Victorian-bred barley line, Buloke, has been approved for malting and brewing status and given formal Barley Australia Accredited Variety status, following extensive testing and trialing around Australia under the Australian barley industry’s Malting and Brewing Industry Barley Technical Committee (MBIBTC), Barley Australia reported January 31.

Barley Australia Chairman David Thomas said the elevation of Buloke to malting status offered the marketplace increased choice in quality Australian malting barleys.

“This variety is ready to go to the market place complete with quality data that has been endorsed by the Australian malting and brewing industry following the comprehensive evaluation it has been through.

“Because of this, it enables purchasers to have confidence in the processing performance of the parcel they buy,” Mr Thomas said.

Buloke barley was bred by Mr David Moody of the Victorian Department of Primary Industries at Horsham. It was one of several elite lines to come from the former Malting Barley Quality Improvement Program (MBQIP), a valued collaboration of industry and government investment in barley breeding.

Buloke is licensed to and available through AWB Seeds.

Despite the cold weather, barley prices showed no signs of cooling off as they continued their upward journey the past two weeks, Farm & Ranch Guide reported February 2.

Malting barley prices are either above $6 a bushel or close to it on the majority of elevator boards, and feed barley prices aren't far behind.

Malting prices continue to creep higher as the maltsters try to coax what barley remains out there on the farm into the market, according to Kelly Kotowicz at the Alvarado Farmers Elevator in Alvarado, Minn.

“They're trying to bust some barley loose and get some stuff bought up,” Kotowicz said. “In many parts of the barley producing regions the crops were off by as much as 15 to 20 percent in 2007, and they are out looking for bushels to make up for those smaller yields.”

Another factor that figures into the equation is uncertainty of where barley acreage will be in 2008. If plantings are smaller due to competition from other crops, that could have a negative impact on malting barley supplies.

“There are a lot of undecided acres out there yet, and I think that will happen all the way to the end,” he said. “It seems like ...More Info

J. Matula, M. Pechová Research Institute of Crop Production, Prague-Ruzyne, Czech Republic

Abstract
The aim of the present paper was to determine the impact of gypsum treatment of soils on initial growth and nutrient uptake by spring barley. Topsoil from 36 different farmed fields was used for the research. Two variants were established for each soil: control – without gypsum application, and response variant – with the application of 3.3 ppm CaSO4.2 H2O. Barley was grown on these soils for 21 days in a plant growth chamber under controlled conditions of cultivation. Concentrations of nutrients (N, NO3 –, P, S, K, Mg, Ca, Na, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, B and Mo) were determined in the yield of barley shoot biomass. Paired t-test was used for the evaluation of results. After the gypsum treatment the yield of barley shoot biomass was significantly higher (by 15% on average) and nitrogen utilisation was better on all soils. The concentration of sulphur increased five times on average and Ca concentration increased by 22%. Significant increases were measured in Mg, Mn and Cu. Insignificant differences were recorded in K, Na, Fe and Zn. The uptake of anion nutrients (P, B and Mo) was influenced significantly. The concentration of P and Mo decreased on average by 28% and 31%, respectively. B concentration was higher by 10% on average. Keywords: soils; gypsum; nutrient uptake; barley; N; P; S; K; Mg; Ca; Na; Fe; Mn; Zn; Cu; B; Mo
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