Germany: With brewers’ hop stocks significantly down, 2019 hop crop already fully contracted

As hop crops 2018 and 2017 were below average, breweries’ hop stocks (especially for Germany’s leading varieties Perle, Hallertauer Tradition and Herkules) have decreased significantly. As a result, crop 2019 is fully contracted already, HVG reported on July 11.

As a consequence, in case of an average crop, there will not be a lot of hops on the spot market, analysts point out. Even in case of an above average crop, those varieties will find a market without any problems.

Situation will be similar for crop 2020. On the growers’ side, there are also a lot of pre-contracts for the following years. Breweries are more and more willing to enter into long-term pre-contracts. The price level is very stable when it comes to the main varieties, however, the new flavour varieties are a bit under pressure because supply sometimes exceeds demand.

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