SABMiller plc and Molson Coors Brewing Company announced that they have signed the definitive transaction agreement for the combination of the U.S. and Puerto Rico operations of their respective subsidiaries, Miller and Coors, into MillerCoors LLC, the joint venture that they announced on 9 October 2007, according to Business Wire, December 21.

Graham Mackay, Chief Executive of SABMiller, said, "Today's announcement is an important step forward towards completing the MillerCoors joint venture, a combination that will ultimately allow us to better meet the needs of distributors, retailers and consumers in the U.S. marketplace by providing greater choice, product availability and increased innovation."

Leo Kiely, Chief Executive of Molson Coors, said, "This combination of our two highly complementary U.S. businesses creates a stronger brewer and allows us to better compete. We look forward to closing the deal in mid-2008 and are cooperating fully with the regulatory clearance process."

The closing of the transaction is subject to obtaining clearance from U.S. competition authorities, certain other regulatory clearances and any required third-party consents. The Miller business and the Coors business will continue to be conducted separately and in the ordinary course until completion of the transaction.

Overview of SABMiller

SABMiller plc is one of the world's largest brewers ...More Info

The CWB released its latest Pool Return Outlook (PRO) for the 2007-08 crop year. Feed barley is up $10 per tonne while malting barley values remain unchanged from the November PRO, according to CWB’s press release, December 20.

Malting barley

Malting barley prices were mostly stable to slightly down during the past month due mainly to sluggish world demand. However, limited supplies caused by lower production and quality issues in Canada, EU, Australia and Argentina continue to provide underlying support for the malting barely market. Tight supplies will continue until the new crop harvest in August 2008.

Feed barley

Pool A - A very small pool size reflects limited delivery opportunities due to logistical capacity restraints for moving grain to port. Limited exports from the Black Sea and production problems in Europe have reduced the available supply of feed grains for the world. This has kept global feed barley fundamentals tight, supporting high prices.

Pool B - The world feed-grain situation continues to be tight. Statistics Canada reduced Canada's barley production by close to 900 000 tonnes, which further tightened the global barley market. Saudi Arabia continues to have uncovered demand for the spring of 2008 and is expected to come into the market soon ...More Info

Heading into the final month of 2007, both feed and malting barley markets saw slight price rallies at several local elevators while in other locations the markets held their ground, Farm & Ranch Guide reported December 20.

The strengthening for both classes was a result of little barley movement by farmers according to Larry Raap, grain merchandiser for Sun Prairie Grain in Minot, N.D.

In addition, feed barley prices received some support from potential export sales and the latest USDA Feed Outlook report that trimmed the world carryover stocks of barley even more.

“We just see a lack of movement as far as barley is concerned,” Raap said. “Since the highs of around $6.25 to the producer, the prices have dropped off and what free stocks of barley are out there they are just sitting on, hoping the price will get better again.

“And on the feed side the prices have improved. There for a while it was down around the $4.80 level, but now it's back to over $5 again, and it's basically the export business that's continuing to drive the feed market,” he continued.

“And some of the maltsters are getting a little more aggressive, depending on who needs some, so there seems ...More Info

Vertikalni koordinace a jeji projevy v komoditní vertikale piva E. VESELSKA Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry, Brno, Czech Republic

Abstract
The paper aims to identify the potential benefits from vertical coordination within the selected commodity chain. The problem is applied to the beer commodity chain because of its high importance in the Czech agri business and foreign trade. On the basis of the vertical analysis of the chosen commodity chain, a mathematic model of consumer price simulation is created and the existence of vertical coordination is verified in the analysed commodity chain. This model assumesthat input price increases are transmitted to consumers. The retail prices of beer a resimulated by holding technology and input-output relationships constant, while production as well as marketing costs change according to the changes in input prices. The simulated retail price is then compared with the actual retail price to indicate productivity gains resulting from vertical coordination passed on to consumers. The result sof the Model of Retail Price Simulation showt hat Czech brewery industry was in the observed period (1994–2002) vertically coordinated. Key words: retail price simulation, vertical coordination, agri-food chain and beer
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