UK: Hop growers buckling under oversupply

British hop growers are buckling under the pressure after a year of pub closures and cancelled music festivals, the director of the British Hop Association has warned, The Grocer reported on July 14.

Ali Capper � who is also chairman of the NFU National Horticulture & Potatoes board and partner at Stocks Farm � told The Grocer sales were �significantly down� and growers were being left with an �oversupply situation�.

�Internationally beer sales are down because there have been no music or beer festivals and there have been a lot of hospitality restrictions across the world.

�And a large proportion � let�s say 70% � of British hops head directly to British cask ale and you only really drink cask ale in a pub � even now pubs are open there are still restrictions, all those sales from people stood at the bar having a drink are not there.�

Compounding the issue, some brewers and merchants had approached the industry early in 2021 �and said they wanted half the crop because there was already such an oversupply situation that had been created last year�, she added.

�That was a hard one because we all have contracts that are legally enforceable.� But, she said: �If you try and enforce a contract on a market that doesn�t want it, you might get your money this year but you might not get another contract in future.�

Growers were being forced to idle increasing amounts of their crops - where the plant is not allowed to grow up the string and is chemically knocked back, she said.

�We farm 100 acres and across the two years we�ll have lost a year�s worth of turnover,� she added.

�British hop growers need drinkers to choose British hopped beers, British beer drinkers to choose brewers who�re supporting the British industry, and they need to remember that beers made with imported hops aren�t being very kind to the environment.�