South Korea's beer imports grew over the past three years as consumers increased demand for more diverse beer products from Europe and Japan, Asia Pulse cited a report on August 4.

The report by the Korea Customs Service stated that the nation imported a total of 20,556 tons of beer worth US$19.06 million during the first half of this year. Three years earlier, the imports amounted to 10,476 tons worth $7.57 million.

The sharp increase was attributed to a surge in imports of beer from European countries and Japan.

The report showed that South Korea bought a total of 4,322 tons of beer from the Netherlands during the first half, compared with 222 tons in the same period of 2005. Imports from Belgium and Germany amounted to 1,679 tons and 1,310 tons, respectively.

Imports of Japanese beer have also grown at a fast pace. South Korea's beer imports from its eastern neighbour totalled 3,113 tons during the first half, compared with a mere 702 tons three years earlier, the report showed.

Japanese brewer Kirin Holdings announced its first-half operating profit fell short of its forecast, hurt by weakness at a non-alcoholic beverage unit. The company also cut its full-year outlook on sluggish beer sales, Reuters reported on August 4.

As the population in Japan ages and tastes diversify, the nation’s beer market has been shrinking for years. Ranked second after Asahi Breweries Ltd, Kirin has stayed ahead of rivals in overall profit and revenue by aggressively acquiring overseas and non-beer businesses.

The company said its operating profit came to 47.6 billion yen ($443 million) for the six months ended in June, up 10.9 percent from a year earlier but below its forecast of 59 billion yen.

For the first six months of this year, domestic beer shipments from Japan's five major brewers dropped a combined 4.2 percent, hurt by price hikes to pass on surging raw materials costs. Kirin's shipments fell 5.9 percent.

For the full year, the company cut its forecast to 152 billion yen in operating profit from the previous 164 billion yen, and below a mean forecast for 158.8 billion yen based on the views of 10 analysts surveyed by Reuters Estimates.

The firm also cut its full-year beer sales target.

Last week, Asahi ...More Info

Carlsberg’s interim results for the 1st half of 2008 were posted on the company’s official site on August 5.

Total organic beer volume growth of 6% in H1 2008 was driven by continued growth despite tough comparables in Eastern Europe, and in Asia, and a flat overall performance in Northern and Western Europe. Total group beer volume growth of 24% was achieved.

In second quarter organic beer volumes grew by 13% in Eastern Europe; including volume growth in Russia of 6.5% versus market growth of 2.8%.

Total organic growth in net revenue was 7% (10% in local currencies) and in operating profit it was 22% (in local currencies 26%).

Second quarter is imported to have had organic growth in net revenue of 7% (in local currencies 10%; in Northern and Western Europe +3%, Eastern Europe +30%, and Asia +20%). Total organic growth in operating profit in the brewing activities in the second quarter was 16% (in local currencies 19%).

The brewer notes significant improvement of product mix, especially in Russia, where consumer preference for premium beer continues to grow.

Price increases are compensating for rising raw material prices and leading to higher gross earnings. Despite higher selling prices Carlsberg increased its market share in most markets. ...More Info

Mozambique’s largest drinks company, Cervejas de Moçambique, in which South Africa’s SABMiller is a majority shareholder, will invest US$ 60 million on a new brewery at Nampula in the north of the country, Macauhub wrote on August 5.

A company source said the US$ 60 million will also be used to boost production capacity at the firm’s existing plants at Maputo and Beira. Cervejas de Moçambique is one of the country’s most profitable businesses and among the ten biggest in Mozambique, according to a recent study.

It is reported that SABMiller holds 65 percent of shares in the drinks group, to the 13.48 percent of founding shareholders, 10 percent of the company’s workers and 5 percent held by management company SPI. A further 2 percent of shares are owned by the Mozambican state and remaining stock held by small investors.

Bere Azuga has signed for a ten-year period an exclusive franchise contract for Romania with German producer Konig Ludwig International, for the production of the beer brands Kaltenberg Pils and Kaltenberg Royal Lager, Financiarul cited the company’s release posted on July 31.

The two brands will be launched on the market in May 2009, and the company announced a € 2 million investment for their production. Another € 20 million will be added for boosting the production capacity of Bere Azuga.

Valerii Moraru, Bere Azuga majority shareholder, said that “Bere Azuga enters, through Kaltenberg brand, on the super-premium segment of the beer market, offering a beer which fully observes the purity law, using only natural ingredients - water, hops, malt. We target a production of more than 100,000 hl in five years time.”

It was announced that the production staff will be trained in Germany and the entire production process is to be monitored by specialists from Konig Ludwig International. The raw material will be imported from Germany as well.

Prince Luitpold, the successor of the last king of Bavaria is the sole shareholder of Konig International Co. Prince’s family is among the most important European beer producers, and their first brewery was ...More Info

The French group Malteurop, a subsidiary of the holding company SICLAE, of which the Champagne Céréales group is majority shareholder, acquired ADM Malting, a subsidiary of the US group Archer Daniels Midland Company, the company’s official site announced on August 1.

Alain Le Floch, Malteurop’s Managing Director, said “This acquisition represents a major consolidation of Malteurop’s position on the malt market – one which will make Malteurop the leading supplier to the major brewing groups and enable us to accompany our clients in all regions of the world.”

This operation assures Malteurop of the leading position in the malt industry worldwide, with a strong presence on the three leading beer markets worldwide (Europe, Asia, North America), an industrial presence on four continents (Europe, North America, Oceania, Asia), and privileged access to all barley-growing zones.

Laurent Jubert, General Manager of the cooperative group Champagne Céréales – Malteurop’s majority shareholder – praised “Malteurop’s highly innovative growth model, which ensures the group’s grower/shareholders of strong added value from their investment in growing brewing barley.” The cost of the transaction remained undisclosed.

About Malteurop and ADM Malting Malteurop is the third-ranking malt producer worldwide, with a production of 1.221 million tons of malt and sales of ...More Info

Farmers, trade and industry, investments funds, media and politicians, believed that grain, rice and oilseed markets would remain at higher than the actual price levels, analysts recall the situation earlier this year. The world was under the impression of additional grain, meat and dairy demand in countries like China, India and Brazil; the warming of the earth causing crop calamities; the U.S. investment funds driving markets up; the use of corn and oilseeds for the production of bio-energy to replace the ever more expensive crude oil and gas to some extent. In June there was the additional price bubble after late planting and flood damage in the corn and soybean belt of the U.S, to crown it all.

However, today all these factors seem to lose their validity, since spring and early summer weather in the Northern Hemisphere was beneficial to field crops.

The U.S. produced a good wheat crop, prospects for corn and soybeans improved, but most of all, Europe from Spain to the Urals produced a huge crop of wheat and barley and foresees an excellent corn crop as well. Black Sea markets became the price leaders, but harvest pressure is obvious in Western Europe and North America as ...More Info

The latest ONIGC crop estimates of 8.4 mln tons of winter barley and 3.2 mln tons of spring barley for France will have to be corrected upwards, for a total crop above 12 mln. tons is quite likely, analysts report.

Yields, kernel size of more than 90 % above 2,5 mm, protein of 9-11 %, low moisture provide for a large supply of outstanding malting barley. It is estimated that up to 80 % of all spring barley deliveries make the malting grade.

Rounding off, the nation may have a supply of 2.5 mln tons of spring and 2.0 mln tons of winter malting barley, an export surplus of approximatively 3 mln tons. This quantity includes up to 0.75 mln tons of Cervoise winter barley, which is a so-called compromise variety and is valued only EUR 10,- per ton higher than feed barley. A large portion of Cervoise may eventually disappear in the feed sector.

WA's Department of Agriculture and Food has submitted two of its barley varieties to Barley Australia for commercial malting and brewing accreditation, Farm Weekly reported on August 4.

Hannan, released in 2007 is a high yielding early spring feed barley that is being evaluated for the Australian domestic brewing industry.

Variety WABAR2315 is a semi-dwarf replacement for Baudin with improved grain yield, grain plumpness and resistance to barley leaf rust, and is being considered as an export malt barley variety.

Department of Agriculture and Food barley industry development officer Jeff Russell said 150 tonnes of each variety had been provided for quality testing and malt evaluation.

"The varieties have also been sown at six sites around the State this season to bulk up grain supplies so that further malting and brewing trials can be undertaken in 2009," he said.

"Hannan is being malted by Kirin Australia in Forrestfield and WABAR2315 by Joe White Malting in Adelaide.

"Malt samples will then be sent to the Swan Brewery for commercial brewing and Pilot Brewing Australia in Melbourne for small scale pilot brewing."

To receive malting accreditation, the varieties would need to meet protocols established by Barley Australia and the Malting and Brewing Industry Barley Technical Committee.

"Pending the results of ...More Info

Western Canadian farmers will receive about $7 billion from grain marketed through the CWB in 2007-08, up 57 per cent over 2006-07 and double the year before, CWB’s official site quoted Ian White, the company’s president and CEO, on July 31.

White said a pooled approach to selling in this year’s high-price international grain environment was responsible for putting an estimated additional $560 million in farmers’ pockets, included in total revenue for spring wheat and durum. By contrast, most American farmers sold early -- well before the dramatic price spikes of early 2008.

Larry Hill, chair of the CWB board of directors, said the 2007-08 crop year demonstrates the advantages of the western Canadian approach to wheat and barley marketing.

CWB malting barley sales were the highest in eight years at 2.4 million tonnes -- a 33-per-cent increase over last year. This included record sales of 114 000 tonnes to Mexico and a half-million-tonne increase in exports to the United States. Producer returns for designated barley will be about $5 per bushel at farmgate, up 65 per cent over 2006-07.

Preliminary export numbers for 2007-08 are 11.3 million tonnes (MT) wheat, 3.1 MT durum, 1.6 MT feed barley and 1.3 MT malting barley. Domestic ...More Info

The first results from this year’s Recommended List trials indicate that it has been a ‘pretty good year’ for winter barley, HGCA Recommended List manager, Jim McVittie, was quoted as saying by the Farmers Guardian on August 1.

“So far winter barley yields are around 0.5t/ha up on the long-term mean and we have not seen much disease around.”

However, with just six of the 20 HGCA-run winter barley trials in so far, caution is needed in interpreting the early results, which are in the main, from lighter land trial sites in the south, said Mr McVittie.

Amongst the malting barleys Pearl showed the expected 97, Flagon had come out lower with a 2008 mean of 96.

“One low result of 80 at the Shirburn site in Oxfordshire has pulled Flagon’s overall mean down so far, but growers should bare in mind that it’s a high yielding feed site and is not a site where you would expect Flagon to do that well. So don’t think that the variety is not performing well on the basis of these first few trial results.

“Flagon is not as stiff as other varieties and malting growers know they need to manage the crop accordingly,” he said, adding that ...More Info

Markéta Dvoráková, Luis F. Guido, Pavel Dostálek, Zuzana Skulilová, Manuela M. Moreira, and Aquiles A. Barros

Abstract

J. Inst. Brew. 114(1), 27–33, 2008 Ten different barley cultivars and their corresponding malts were used to obtain different fractions. Phenolics extracted belonged to free, soluble esters and insoluble-bound fractions. Total phenolic content (TPC) of the free fraction, as measured according to the Folin-Ciocalteu method, ranged from 37.7 to 167.2 mg gallic acid equiv/kg of dried material (GAE/kgdw) for barley and between 34.1 and 72.3 mg GAE/kgdw for malt. The bound phenolic content ranged from 210.3 to 320.5 and between 81.1 and 234.9 mg GAE/kgdw for barley and malt, respectively. The contribution of bound phenolics to the TPC was significantly higher than that of free and esterified fractions. Catechin and ferulic acid, quantified by high performance liquid chromatography with diode array detector (HPLC-DAD), were the most abundant phenolics in the free and bound fractions, respectively. The p-coumaric acid content was lower in hulless genotypes, as compared to hulled genotypes, showing that it is mainly concentrated in the hull. The antioxidant activities of the phenolic fractions were investigated using the radical scavenging assay (DPPH) and ferricyanide reducing power. The bound phenolics demonstrated a significantly higher antioxidant capacity compared to the free and esterified phenolics. During the malting process, a significant decrease of the bound phenolics was observed with a corresponding increase of the esterified fraction. Key words: Antioxidant properties, barley, free phenolics, insoluble- bound phenolics, soluble ester phenolics, malt. Load full article, 7 pages, 558 Kb, PDF file