USA: US hop stocks up 21% from last year

U.S. hop stocks totaled 169 million pounds on March 1, up 21 percent from a year earlier and marking the third March in a row that it has increased, the Capital Press reported on March 22.

“This was certainly expected. We are hearing that prices for certain varieties, particularly the larger-acreage public varieties of Cascade and Centennial, saw substantially lower prices on the spot market last fall,” said Ann George, executive director of Hop Growers of America and the Washington Hop Commission in Moxee, near Yakima.

Much of the crop is contracted a pre-defined prices so lower prices generally only impact spot markets such as over-contract or rejected production volumes or acreage for which a multi-year contract has expired, George said.

A lot of that acreage will be replanted in varieties that are not currently over supplied and some acreage may go idle for a year or two on the hope of a more even supply-demand balance, she said.

Acreage expansion is unlikely this year, she said.

The 169 million-pound inventory amounts to 132 million pounds held by dealers and growers and 37 million pounds held by brewers, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistic Service. The March 1 report was released March 15.

Proportionately, less is being held the last two years by brewers compared to the amount held by dealers and growers.

Hop stocks totaled 140 million pounds a year ago and 128 million pounds two years ago. Sept. 1 hop inventories were 98 million pounds last year, 85 million pounds in 2016 and 83 million pounds in 2015.

In recent years, expansion of small, craft breweries has fueled an increase in the demand for aroma hop varieties. But the rate of craft brewery growth demand has slowed even as acreage has increased.

Larger brewers have also lost market share to other beverages.

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