SABMiller plc announced on March, 20 that it has signed an agreement with its JV partner, Vietnam Dairy Products Joint Stock Company (Vinamilk), to acquire Vinamilk's 50% interest in SABMiller Vietnam JV Company Limited (the Company).

Conditions to the transaction have been fulfilled and SABMiller Asia BV is now the sole shareholder in the Company, the world’s second-largest brewer posted on its official website.

The Company's assets which are the subject of the transaction totalled US$31.8 million at the fiscal year end, 31st December 2008.

The JV’s brewery is located in Binh Duong province and supplies the key markets of Ho Chi Minh City, Mekong Delta and Da Nang through an expanding distribution network. The beer industry in Vietnam is still relatively small with total volumes of 18.5 mln hl but is expected to grow significantly. Current per capita consumption is modest and is estimated to be 21 litres per annum.

Ari Mervis, Managing Director of SABMiller Asia BV, said: "Having acquired Vinamilk's interest in the Company, we look forward to developing and expanding our interests further in the growing and attractive Vietnamese beer market. Partnering with Vinamilk at the outset has benefited SABMiller significantly as a result of ...More Info

Export of Czech beer increased slightly from 3.6 mln hl in 2007 to 3.7 mln hl last year, CTK cited Czech Beer and Malt Association data on March, 20.

The nation’s total beer production is estimated to have fallen to 19.8 mln hl from 19.9 mln hl registered in the previous year. The official results, however, will be released by the Association next week, it is reported.

According to Jan Vesely, head of Czech Beer and Malt Association (CSPS), the Czech brewing industry has suffered from the economic crisis. The same can be expected for the current year, he said.

“Czech Republic’s domestic beer consumption has remained at about 159 litres per capita and is increasingly relying on tourists,” Mr Vesely said.

Licensed production of Czech beer in Slovakia, Russia, Poland and Hungary remained at about 1.91 mln hl last year.

SABMiller’s Colombian subsidiary, Bavaria brewery, said its domestic sales of beer and other malt drinks amounted to 21.9 mln hl in 2008, Portafolio.com reported on March, 20.

The 2007 sales were 0.9% higher, estimated at 22.1 mln hl.

Nevertheless, the producer of Colombia’s best-selling beer said the second half of 2008 saw its sales increase by 12.2% compared to the first six months.

Bavaria’s operational profit dropped 3.2% last year, whereas its consolidated net profit fell 13.5% in comparison with 2007. The brewer attributed the drop to an increase of the distribution costs.

Across the US, governors and state legislators are trying to plug gaping holes in their budgets by increasing taxes on beer, St. Louis Today published on March, 19.

New York’s recent experience shows that making beer taxes heavier will be fraught with controversy. New York Gov. David Paterson’s idea of raising excise taxes to cover a $14 billion deficit brought protesters onto the streets…or at least into meeting rooms, it is reported.

The plan is falling flat, partly because Anheuser-Busch is allowing its workers to voice their vociferous objections. The company recently stopped production at a New York plant so workers from the 815-employee plant could go to news conference and blast the proposed tax hike - a 118 percent increase - in front of reporters.

About 300 people attended the conference in a large meeting room inside the brewery.

“We know these are challenging times,” said Plant Manager Steve McCormick. “We recognize that the state of New York, like so many other states, is confronting economic challenges and is evaluating steps to correct these problems.

“However, more than doubling the excise tax on an industry that provides good-paying jobs and generates revenue for the state is not the answer,” McCormick said.

The tax would ...More Info

Mozambique's sole brewing company, Cervejas de Mocambique (CDM - Beers of Mozambique), claims that it made a loss of six million US dollars between August 2008 and January 2009, allafrica.com reported on March, 19.

CDM director Jose Moreira said that in recent months consumption of CDM's beers had declined "drastically", and as a result the amount of unsold beer, stored in the company's warehouses, had soared.

By the end of February, there were 600,000 crates of beer in the CDM warehouses, Moreira said. Unsold stock meant heavy financial losses for the company, he claimed, particularly since CDM had already paid the taxes owed on this beer.

Moreira, who was speaking at a meeting between company managers and the Minister of Industry and Trade, Antonio Fernando, said that CDM was no longer producing at full capacity, and had reduced its imports of beer and hops.

With such a crisis of overproduction, it seems a strange time to increase the prices of CDM beer. Yet that is precisely what the company did on 2 March, announcing a price rise of about eight per cent for most of its brands. This is unlikely to make it any easier to move the 600,000 crates that Moreira ...More Info

During the first two months of 2009, the slump in Latvia’s beer sales constituted 17%, the Union of Russian Brewers communicated on March, 19.

According to experts, the industry development suffered from a negative trend in the Latvian economics, as well as from a sudden increase of the excise tax on beer.

The nation’s brewers lost about LVL1 mln in January – February. Another blow was delivered by imported beer, especially beer from Russia and Belarus which became more competitive in Latvia as a result of the devaluation of the national currencies.

Despite falling prices, the estimate of France’s ending stock of barley for the 2008/2009 crop year has been increased, ONIGC posted on March, 11.

The forecast for the nation’s ending stocks of barley, previously set at 2.6 mln tonnes, was increased by 170,000 tonnes.

In 2008/2009, France is expected to harvest 12.3 mln tonnes of barley, of which more than 10.8 mln will be available for the market taking into consideration the opening stocks (0.7 mln tonnes) and the imported volumes estimated at 50,000 tonnes of barley.

France’s domestic use of barley has been maintained by the IGC at 2.4 mln tonnes, of which 1.5 mln tonnes will be used in the production of feed for animals.

The estimate of the nation’s sales to other EU members is unchanged (slightly over 3.4 mln tonnes).

IGC forecasts that in 2008/2009 crop year France will export to third countries about 1.1 mln tonnes of barley (estimate reduced by 100,000 tonnes since last month due to competition with Ukraine).

Malt exports are expected to remain stable on the level of the previous year: more than 1.2 mln tonnes.

The cancellations of contracts registered last week on the European market of malting barley have blocked the market’s activity, La Depeche posted on March, 20.

This has made defining the level of malting barley prices a very difficult task, operators say.

The barley crop 2008 sees absolutely no demand. This is a disturbing situation as the offer of the crop is still large almost in all EU countries, experts report.

The feed barley market was livened up by small-scale deals in the north of the EU. Prices are influenced by the dynamics of wheat prices.

Yuhong Jin, Kaili Zhang and Jinhua Du

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 114(4), 289–293, 2008 In this study, the malting performance of six traditional Chinese wheat varieties was evaluated. The effects of protein content on wheat endosperm composition and the malt quality were studied. The beta-glucan in the malt showed a positive correlation (r = 0.806, P<0.1) with the protein content of the wheat. With an increase in protein content, there was a significant linear decrease in extract (r = ..0.923, P<0.01) and Kolbach Index (r = ..0.850, P<0.05), but diastatic power, soluble protein and FAN gave a peak value at 16.0% protein content. Because of the suitable protein and starch content, the malt qualities of wheat W-3 were satisfactory. Extract was 81.7%, saccharification time was 6.5 min, diastatic power was 484.07WK, FAN was 136.58 mg/100 g, the Kolbach index was 40.0% and viscosity was 1.77 cP. Key words: beta-glucan, malt, protein, wheat. Load full article, 5 pages, 718 Kb, PDF file