Australia: Hop Products Australia harvests smaller hop crop this year
Hop Products Australia, the country’s largest grower, completed the 2021 hop harvest across its three farms in late April, picking 675 hectares (1,668 acres) for a total of 1,526 metric tons of hops, The New Brewer reported.
This was a 44-hectare (6.9-percent) increase and a 25-metric ton (1.6 percent) decrease year-on-year across six proprietary varieties: Eclipse®, Ella™, Enigma®, Galaxy®, Topaz™, and Vic Secret,™ along with Cascade.
Despite the total yield coming in slightly under expectation, Galaxy totals grew 7.2 percent year-on-year. This marks 11 years of continuous growth, excluding 2016 when Australia was hit with significant hail damage.
Eclipse looks set to follow in Galaxy’s footsteps after exceeding expectations in its second year of commercialization.
Sustainably scaling up Eclipse, Galaxy, and Vic Secret has been the focus of a continuing A$35 million expansion in Victoria that will take Hop Products Australia’s total farming operations to more than 800 hectares at completion. All additional acreage will reach commercial maturity by 2024, at which point Eclipse is forecast to reach 180 metric tons, making it the third-largest proprietary hop. This year’s average oil content was above the five-year average for all varieties except Enigma.
Hop Products Australia’s three farms—Bushy Park Estates, Rostrevor Hop Gardens, and Buffalo River Valley—endured the La Niña weather pattern that resulted in slightly cooler daytime temperatures due to increased cloud cover, particularly in the weeks preceding harvest. While these conditions had a positive impact on early vegetative growth, the decrease in daylight hours reduced the total number of flowering sites and some cones fought to reach full maturity by their harvest window, adversely affecting total yield.
Despite total yield coming in slightly under expectation, Hop Product Australia’s commitment to responsible contracting will allow it to meet all obligations apart from Ella, which came in 22 percent under contracted volumes. Topaz and Cascade were also down year-on-year, but this was due to reductions and idling of acreage. The company also completed its pivot from alpha hops to almost exclusively proprietary flavor hops, including grubbing all Super Pride acreage, which remained unplanted this season in preparation for deployment later in the year.
Torna
E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .
