German beer consumption fell 2.1 percent last year as an ageing population drank less or switched to other beverages, Bloomberg cited on April, 20 a statement by German statistics office Destatis.

Average per capita consumption of beer and beer-mix beverages declined in 2009 to 104.8 litres from 107.1 litres a year earlier, it is reported.

“This confirms a long-term trend, with falling beer consumption as our population is shrinking and graying,” Marc-Oliver Huhnholz, a spokesman for the country’s brewers’ association, said in an interview. Consumption will probably fall this year by as much as 2 percent, though demand related to the Soccer World Championships may limit the decline, he said.

The nation’s total beer consumption last year was 86.1 million hectolitres, down 1.8 million hectolitres from 2008.

According to Marc-Oliver Huhnholz, the German beer market is surprisingly domestic, with exports only accounting for about 15 percent of revenue.

Germany’s beer market, which includes about 1,300 brewers, is under pressure as discounters try to benefit from overproduction by selling beer for as little as 19 cents a half- litre. Per capita consumption has fallen almost every year since 1991, when the figure was 141.2 litres, according to Destatis.

China Resources Breweries Co., Ltd. and Tsingtao Brewery are entering the beer market in central China's Henan Province, via acquiring local beer brewers, SinoCast reported on April, 21.

China Resources Breweries has already inked an acquisition agreement with Yue Quan Beer, to fully acquire the latter, sources disclosed. Originated in 1980, Yue Quan Beer currently has CNY 68 million worth of the fixed assets and annual beer production capacity of 100,000 tons. Last year, the company announced the plan to usher in CNY 50 million investments for a 200,000-ton project. China Resources Breweries won the deal eventually.

Still, China Resources Breweries has a more aggressive ambition. Presently, the Beijing-based beer maker is negotiating with another locally-based beer brewer called Ao Ke Beer, aiming to acquire the smaller beer producer.

According to available data, Ao Ke Beer started operation in 1989 and has annual output of about 250,000 tons. In addition to Henan Province, its products are also sold to Hebei and Shaanxi. Still, insiders of Ao Ke Beer did not confirm the acquisition story yet.

In the meantime, Shanghai-listed Tsingtao Brewery reportedly is in talks with Weixue Beer Group. Both sides have had contact with each other for a long time; and ...More Info

World’s No. 2 brewer SABMiller plc is to build a $34 million brewery in Namibia as it looks to increase its presence in the southern African country by locally producing its popular Castle and Castle Lite brands, Reuters reported on April, 23.

According to the brewing giant, construction of the brewery - which is expected to have a capacity of 220,000 hectolitres and will be built in Okahandja, 70 km north of Namibia's capital Windhoek - will start in the second half of the year.

SABMiller will hold a 60 percent stake in the brewery through SABMiller Namibia Ltd, while the remaining 40 percent will go to local Namibian partners in a black economic empowerment (BEE) scheme.

The BEE partners include Onyewu Investments, which will hold 20 percent, and three charitable trusts.

SABMiller has been importing beer into Namibia for more than 20 years and holds around 22 percent of the local market share. It provides brands like Castle Lager, Carling Black Label, Peroni Nastro Azzurro and Castle Lite.

The new brewery will also include a returnable bottle packaging line and warehousing facilities.

West African brewer and drinks maker Solibra has announced an unchanged dividend of 12,060 CFA francs ($24.79) per share despite a drop in 2009 net profit, Reuters reported on April, 20.

The dividend will be paid out on its 823,024 traded shares. The company this month reported net profit fell to 14.068 billion CFA from 16.8 billion CFA the year before.

Solibra said 2009 sales were bouyed by a spike in the price of cocoa in Ivory Coast, the world's biggest grower, which had given farmers a lot more disposable income to spend on wine and beer.

Turnover increased to 114.7 billion CFA from 104.8 billion CFA the year before, the company said in the report, confirming local press reports.

Solibra said 2010 results will depend on Ivory Coast's volatile politics and on elections which have been repeatedly delayed since 2005.

"Our results in 2010 will particularly depend on the current politico-military crisis and how quickly the presidential poll preparations happen," it said.

There is a really great overcapacity of malt in China, Russia and the Ukraine, but only China sells limited quantities of malt to world markets, an analysts’ note communicated last week.

Russia and Ukraine do not and cannot find buyers for their malt, apart from shipments to their southern and eastern neighbours of the CIS/FSU.

France, Germany and the U.K. do not use between 15 and 20% of their malting capacities, industry analysts believe. Most estimates are that this figure applies also to the EU as a whole, 1.5 to 2.0 mln tons.

Normal usage of capacities is 95% or half a million tons below total capacity (on paper). During the last crisis some years ago the effect of an apparent overcapacity was considered so serious that maltsters sold their produce at great losses, one large company went bankrupt. Some companies are at the verge of doing it again, sources claim.

It will only take a better world economy, improved beer markets, a change of beer recipes adjusted to a different price relation of malt and adjuncts and the closure of some old, inefficient malthouses, after which the cycle will point upwards again, experts said.

Apart from this speculative outlook, reduced barley ...More Info

Barley acreage estimates show sharp reductions from last year across the EU, industry experts communicated earlier this month.

France’s barley plantings are estimated to reach just 440 thousand ha this year (550 thousand ha last year), Germany’s – 350 thousand ha (433), the UK’s – 475 (750), the Czech Republic’s – 280-300 (320), Slovakia’s – 120-140 (180), Sweden’s – 280 (370).

Finland and Poland report a smaller share of malting barley varieties. Spain and very surprisingly Denmark expect only a small reduction of their spring barley acres. Hungary, Romania and neighbouring Croatia and Serbia predict drastically reduced hectares, because of detrimental markets conditions and a late spring, which did not allow barley planting at the optimal moment.

In the EU there will be 15 – 20% less acreage of spring barley. The lesser hectares alone do not present a major risk for next year’s supplies, but it is questionable whether the EU will have a similar crop result as in 2009, namely very large yields and a perfect selection of quality malting barley, experts said.

Farmers are using less certified and instead more farm seed, and less fertilizer as well. At present, though, fields in Central Europe, France and South England look ...More Info

Although positive, the three-year deal for malting barley sales signed by the CWB and China is under what the CWB usually sells in volume if the nation annualizes the agreement, IMBM experts communicated earlier this week.

It would be desirable if Canada could build on these base sales and participate fully in the growth of this large market. If Canada could maintain a solid percentage of China’s annual malt barley needs, it means higher volumes in real terms, IMBM said.

The concern for Canadian malting barley sales/shipping this current year would center around volumes to the USA. Last year shipping levels were quite high against more modest shipping so far this year. Volumes have also declined for malt barley movement to Mexico. There is good supply in the USA from their own crop and with beer consumption levels lower needs have been moderate. With economic recovery, however, and the likelyhood of decreased acres this crop year this situation could reverse itself – notably – before too long, IMBM experts believe.

The CWB forecasts for overall malt barley exports have been tempered accordingly.

There is an early spring in Canada and seeding should start soon and so that should mean an early harvest. That ...More Info

Jiří Čulík, Marie Jurková, Tomáš Horák, Pavel Čejka, Vladimír Kellner, Josef Dvořák, Pavel Karásek and Michal Roth

J. Inst. Brew. 115(3), 220–225, 2009
ABSTRACT
The EBC method 7.7, currently used for determination of bitter acids in hop products, is a time-consuming and laborious extraction technique. In this paper, our aim was to propose a new extraction method based on Pressurized Solvent Extraction (PSE) sometimes also called Pressurized Fluid Extraction (PFE) or Accelerated Solvent Extraction (ASE). Compared to conventional extractions, PSE offers a number of important benefits. PSE on OnePSE® automated extractor was used for extraction of ?- and ß-acids from hops and hop products and the parameters influencing extraction efficiency and the influence of the sample preparation method were studied. The quantitative determination of ?- and ß-acids in the extracts was accomplished by using an HPLC apparatus equipped with diode array detector. The experimental results were compared with those obtained by the standard EBC 7.7 method and the two methods were found to be fully compatible Key words: analysis, bitter acids, hops, hop products, pressurized solvent extraction, PSE. Load full article, 6 pages, 211kb , PDF file