Less beer was produced worldwide last year – but hops thrived. This exacerbates the overproduction of the flavor carrier.
Global beer production has fallen. A total of 188 billion liters of beer were produced last year, according to the annual report of the world’s largest hops trader BarthHaas from Nuremberg. That was 0.9 percent – or 1.7 billion liters of beer less than a year ago. The decline came as a surprise: “After we were able to record a slight increase in 2022 despite adverse conditions, we also expected a small increase for 2023,” says BarthHaas Managing Director Peter Hintermeier.
Germany defended its fifth place as a beer producer, although beer output fell by 3.3 percent to just under 8.5 billion liters. According to the report, China is number one worldwide with 35.9 billion liters, ahead of the USA with 19.3 billion, Brazil with 14.9 billion and Mexico with 14.2 billion liters. While output fell slightly in China and significantly in the USA, Brazil and Mexico both increased slightly.
“Consumers groan”
According to BarthHaas, it is difficult to predict how beer production will continue. “The brewing industry is still feeling the effects of the war in Ukraine,” says Thomas Raiser, who is also managing director of the hops trader. “Consumers in many countries are groaning under the burden of high inflation. For the current year, we are therefore only expecting stable beer output, but there is no clear trend for the future.”
At least hops will not be in short supply any time soon. The harvest of cones was significantly more plentiful than last year. 118,415 tons represented an increase of 11.5 percent. However, this is also due to the weak comparison year, which was characterized by drought, heat and heavy thunderstorms, among other things.
Market is oversupplied with hops
Overall, however, BarthHaas continues to see an oversupply of the market with alpha acid, the ingredient in hops that gives beer its bitter note. As a result, the area under cultivation must be reduced in order to adapt to the reduced demand. This already happened last year and this trend is continuing this year, as figures from the Association of German Hop Growers suggested a few weeks ago. However, the majority of the decline affects the USA, as BarthHaas also reports. As a result, Germany has regained the title of the world’s largest hop producer in terms of area under cultivation this year. In the 2023 harvest, however, the USA was still well ahead with 47,601 to 41,234 tons. The 2024 harvest is still pending – who produces the most hops this year will be revealed in the BarthHaas report in 2025.
However, developments in the hops market are unlikely to have a major impact on the price of beer: the costs of the ingredient are negligible given its comparatively small share.
Source: Stern
