China Resources Snow Breweries Ltd., which is owned by SABMiller Plc and China Resources Enterprise Ltd., started building a 650 million yuan ($95 million) brewery in Shanghai, the Oriental Morning Post reported, citing Wang Qun, general manager of China Resources Snow, on December, 19.

The plant will have an annual production capacity of 400 mln tonnes, making it the biggest beer production plant in Shanghai.

The brewer is to face a stiff competition with Suntory Ltd. of Japan, which controls about half of the market in Shanghai, and Tsingtao Brewery Co., which holds about 20 percent.

The total consumption of beer in Shanghai is about 800 million litres while China Resources Snow's current sales stand at 80 million litres, said a company insider.

Shanghai, as one of the most competitive beer markets in China, is the China headquarters of the newly merged Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's biggest brewer with an annual output close to 1 billion litres in China.

Companhia de Bebidas das Americas — better known as AmBev, the Brazilian unit of the world's biggest brewer — is being investigated on suspicion of anticompetitive practices by the Brazilian Justice Ministry, Bloomberg reported on December, 18.

The ministry's economic defence and protection department is investigating whether exclusivity contracts between retailers and AmBev, a unit of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, impede the entry of competitors into the market.

The ministry said in a statement that it was also looking into whether the company was limiting competition by supplying retailers with refrigerators that can store only AmBev products.

In a separate investigation, the department will decide if AmBev's promotion of its Puerto del Sol and Puerto del Mar brands about the same time a competitor introduced the Sol brand in Brazil was meant to confuse consumers, the ministry said. The Sol brand is distributed in Brazil by Cervejarias Kaiser SA, a unit of Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB.

A spokeswoman for Ambev in Sao Paulo said the company had not been notified of the investigation and declined to comment further.

"AmBev, being the market leader, is always watched closely by government agencies," said Alan Cardoso, analyst at Agora Corretora in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. "There's ...More Info

Australia's biggest brewer, Foster's Group Ltd, is less likely to hive off its $3.5 billion wine business, the world's second largest, early next year as there are few obvious buyers and funding is hard to find, Reuters posted on December, 18.

Speculation has been rife that international brewers are circling Foster's beer business if it unhitches the struggling wine unit from a reliable earnings stream generated by an Australian beer market share of more than 50 percent.

However, the chances of the maker of Crown Lager and Victoria Bitter being swept up in a global brewing industry consolidation are decreasing as expectations grow that the wine unit will stay.

Analysts say the A$5 billion wine operation, which ranks behind only Constellation, will be tough to sell as potential buyers are few and harsh debt markets make funding a deal difficult. Returns from selling wine are also under pressure as supplies are plentiful but consumer demand is slowing.

"In this type of market it's going to be very difficult to do anything. My guess is we'll get an internal restructure story," said Theo Maas, investment analyst at Fortis Investment Partners.

The lure of Foster's beer operations, worth A$10-A$11 billion, may not be enough to convince an ...More Info

China’s Tsingtao Brewery said it would continue to concentrate on the huge domestic market, where potential is high especially in rural areas, CCTV communicated on December, 19.

Sun Mingbo, President of Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd. said "We will focus on the domestic market first and then seek further overseas expansion. In fact, the Chinese market has accounted for a large proportion of the global brewery markets. Competition at home is just as tough as competition abroad."

The Chinese government's measures to boost domestic consumption are also boosting homegrown brands' confidence. Tsingtao’ CEO states the company will not stop developing its brands both at home and abroad.

Sun Mingbo said "We have prepared for the difficulties in the coming year. The brewery industry is relatively stable amid the turmoil. Besides, the central government's measures to boost domestic consumption will help drive the sector's development. Plus, the declining raw material prices will help in our further development."

China is expected to experience slower economic growth in 2009. Despite this, enterprises say they will continue with their strategies and do their best to get ready for the next wave of growth.

The European court's ruling that Anheuser-Busch should not have rights to the brand throughout the EU is a blow to the US firm but a positive for Budvar, which has gained good publicity over the years from its Bud battles, Drinks Business Review communicated on December, 17.

Anheuser-Busch has been fighting for trademark exclusivity of the Budweiser name for a number of years, with varying degrees of success. The company claims to have used the Budweiser name for longer than Budejovicky Budvar, having been founded in 1876 while the latter was formed in 1895. However, the Czech company claims that the Budweiser name has been in use for much longer, as it refers to a type of beer that has been brewed in a specific region of the Czech Republic since 1260, predating the American claim by 616 years.

The latest ruling means that unless Anheuser-Busch decides to appeal the decision, it will have to battle it out with Budvar on an individual country basis, which could be costly. This is something it may wish to avoid, given the company's recent acquisition by InBev and subsequent cost cutting exercises: indeed, the firm has slashed 1,400 jobs in the US alone since the ...More Info

Plzeňský Prazdroj, the leading brewer of the Czech Republic, is experiencing the usual pre-Christmas sales, so the volumes are slightly lower than in the summer, when people drink more beer to refresh themselves, the company spokesman Jiří Mareček was quoted as saying by the Prague Post on December, 17.

As it was previously reported, the nation’s domestic consumption fell 2 percent from January to September compared with the same period in 2007. Exports of Czech beer grew 4 percent, prompting breweries to rethink their strategy, and the production dipped 0.9 percent.

Sales of non-alcoholic beer are steadily increasing in the Republic, with output growing 18 percent year on year to more than 461,000 hectolitres. Though non-alcoholic beer accounts for only 5 percent of total Czech beer production, insiders predict that its popularity will continue to rise, and say such figures are only one example of how beer drinkers’ tastes are changing.

“People don’t reduce beer drinking in tough times but switch to weaker and cheaper consumption,” said Jan Veselý, president of the Czech Beer and Malt Association.

“The popularity of 11-degree beer is increasing, and this is usually connected with a decrease of 12 degree.”

Max Munson, the owner of Jáma, a restaurant and pub ...More Info

Muntons plc, a malt and malted ingredients manufacturer based in Stowmarket Suffolk, UK, announced the opening of its first office in the USA at the end of last month.

Though the company has been trading in North America for many years this is the first time that it has based an employee actually in the area.

Terry McNeill, Muntons Malted Ingredients international sales manager, will be developing sales of Muntons malted ingredients across the North American continent, including Canada and Mexico, it is reported.

In addition to the food and bakery industry, Terry will also be looking after the burgeoning homebrew and microbrewery markets.

Microbrewing has shown consistent growth in the USA over the last few years with discerning consumers adopting these unique regionally brewed beers in preference to the more usual light lagers prevalent across the country and Muntons are proud to have been supplying this market since its inception over twenty years ago, the company posted.

The opening of Muntons US office marks the second stage of their overseas expansion, complimenting the opening last year of their office in Singapore.

Muntons exported nearly 47,000 tonnes - nearly 2,000 truckloads - of malt and malted ingredients worth over £21 million in the last year, ...More Info

The ONIGC (Office National Interprofessionnel des Grandes Cultures) published its provisional estimates for the 2008/2009 marketing year on December, 10.

World barley production in the 2008/2009 MY was reduced to 155 mln tonnes (minus 1 mln tonnes from the last month’s estimate, + 15% compared to 2007), with the production estimates lowered for Argentina and Australia.

The estimates for the barley crop of the main producers were increased as follows:

• EU-27 – to more than 66 mln tonnes (+ 8.5 mln tonnes versus 2007); • Former Soviet Union - 40 mln tonnes (+12.5 mln tonnes versus last year), of which 22.5 mln tonnes for Russia and 12.5 mln tonnes for Ukraine; • Canada – more than 11 mln tonnes (+ 0.2 mln tonnes from 2007); • Australia – 6.5 mln tonnes (- 1 mln tonnes from the last estimate, + 0.6 mln tonnes compared to 2007).

Global consumption is expected to be 149 mln tonnes in 2008/2009 (+ 10 mln tonnes from 2007/2008). Feed use estimate remains at more than 104 mln tonnes (+11% from the last marketing year); industrial use, brewing in particular, is estimated to be 28 mln tonnes).

World trade is estimated to embrace 19 mln tonnes of barley, an ...More Info

The CWB released its December Pool Return Outlook (PRO) for the 2008-09 crop year on December, 18.

According to the Board, world grain markets continue to be impacted by large crops, cautious buyers and economic uncertainty. Currency volatility is injecting tremendous uncertainty into grain prices, including the CWB PRO.

Designated barley has declined by C$4 per tonne (two-row to C$320 per tonne from C$324 in November’s PRO, six-row malting barley – to C$300 from C$304 last month).

Pool A feed barley is down C$3 per tonne to C$187 per tonne from C$190 in November. The first PRO for Pool B feed barley is C$162 per tonne.

Barley PRO Commentary 2008-09 crop year

Feed barley Global barley supply is the largest in four years, with the most recent USDA report increasing global production by a million tonnes to 150 million tonnes, with the bulk of the increase coming from Canada and the European Union. Demand from Saudi Arabia has softened after the high feed demand associated with the Festival of Eid held in early December. In the Black Sea region, credit challenges have prompted producers to become aggressive in moving barley into the market, creating greater competition.

Designated barley A weakening trend in malt barley prices continued during the ...More Info

Domestically produced hops covers only 15% of the needs of Ukraine’s brewers, who are forced to import the rest, the Day Weekly posted on December, 17.

It is a well-known fact that to survive in the free market environment, manufacturers should be able to present new and competitive goods. In hops growing this means breeding and producing new varieties, which would meet all the requirements of the brewing industry and be sold at reasonable prices.

Over the last decade, the spectrum of hops varieties cultivated has undergone considerable changes all over the world. On the one hand, this resulted from the changing needs of the brewers, on the other – from the appearance of new more competitive varieties.

The players on the hops market of the last decade may be characterized as follows:

• nations that do not grow hops but produce beer; • nations that grow hops in the amounts significantly exceeding their domestic needs; • countries, mostly producing hops of the coarse varieties, but at the same time having a strong demand for more delicate specialty beers like Pilsens (and, consequently, for more delicate hops varieties); • nations importing hops for intermediate trade and at the same time producing hops ...More Info

Wen-xue Zhang, Zong-wei Qiao, Yue-qin Tang, Cheng Hu, Qun Sun, Shigeru Morimura and Kenji Kida

Abstract

ABSTRACT J. Inst. Brew. 113(1), 21–27, 2007 Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and 18S rRNA gene analysis were carried out to analyze the fungal community in Zaopei during the production of Chinese Luzhou-flavour liquor. Two pairs of primers (EF4 /Fung5 and EF4/NS2-GC) were used for the DGGE. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for clone analysis was preformed with the primers (EF4 /EF3). The results of the DGGE analysis showed that the fungal 18S rRNA genes taken from the Zaopei sample of the pit had high diversity. Gene clone libraries containing 120 clonal sequences of 18S rRNA were constructed. The fungal diversity shift showed that the fungal genera changed with increasing fermentation time and four genera of fungi (Issatchenkia, Talaromyces, Aspergillus and Eurotium) were the main dominant communities during the fermentation of Chinese Luzhou-flavour liquor. The clonal sequences of the genera Rhizopus and Saccharomyces were found with difficulty from the clone libraries of Zaopei, suggesting that the genera Rhizopus and Saccharomyces perhaps are not necessary for saccharifying and fermenting grains during the production of Chinese Luzhou-flavour liquor. Key words: Chinese Luzhou-flavour liquor, clone analysis, DGGE, fungi, 18S rRNA gene, Zaopei. Load full article, 7 pages, 676 Kb, PDF file