World: Hop crop 2022 expected to be considerably weaker than crop 2021

The IHGC’s economic commission expects world hop crop 2022 to be considerably weaker than crop 2021, especially due to the unfavourable weather conditions with dryness and high temperatures in much of Europe, HVG said in its recent report.

Currently, the IHGC expects 13% less hops although hop acreage has only declined slightly. Alpha acid is even estimated to decrease by 15%.

Thanks to the very good crops in previous years, most breweries are in a comfortable hop situation. Several breweries increased their stocks significantly. Therefore, HVG do not expect a below-average crop 2022 to lead to a hop shortage. However, it will be challenging to balance out the unequally distributed stocks within the brewing industry.