Czech Republic: Czech hop acreage stable in 2007

The total acreage of hops in the Czech Republic is 5408 ha for the year 2007, which is only a very slight change from the last year acreage of 5414 ha, according to the report of Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture, department for hops, May 2007.
The major variety is still SAAZ fine aroma hops with 89,5 % of the total acreage. Compare to the previous year there was an increase of the variety Premiant and a decrease of Saaz variety, mainly in the Saaz hop growing region. The positive news is that compare to previous years there was more new plantings of the Saaz variety and we foresee that this trend will continue.
Development of the Czech hop acreage in the future

The national programme supporting the purchase of new virus free-plants is now running for the second year. Last year nearly 200 ha were planted thanks to this program and we expect that this year the number will be closer to 300 ha, most of which (about ¾) being the Saaz variety. This program will continue also further and we assume that the area of newly planted hops may exceed 300 ha in the next years. The costs of plants are only the smaller part of the costs of erecting a new hop garden. The growers should be however able to use EU funding for rural development for the hop trellises from 2007.

There may still be some small reduction of the Saaz variety in the upcoming years due to its current age structure but if the economics of hop growing the Czech Republic improve we assume that that the Saaz hop acreage returns to previous level and that the production of this variety will reflect the needs of the breweries.

Current situation in the Czech hop growing regions

The winter was very mild. The dry and hot climatic conditions continued also in April (no rainfall) and beginning of May. These conditions have so far negatively influenced especially the growth of newly set-up hop gardens and made the spring works more difficult. The spring works were approx. one week ahead of schedule. The twining is now finished and by the end of April also the training of the new Czech hop varieties has nearly been finished. The training of the Saaz variety was under way in the first two weeks and is now also finished.

Czech hop growers produced 5453,4 t of hops in 2006

The average yield for 2006 was 1,01 t/ha. The total production was 30,4 % down from 2005 and 13,6 % down compared to 2004.

Saaz, the main Czech variety, accounted for 86,5 % of the Czech hop production with average yield of 0,96 t/ha and total production of 4717,9 t. The main reason for the lower crop in the Saaz hop growing region were the damages after two hail storms in May and June. The crop in all areas and especially the alpha content was influenced by the tropical weather in July. Lower crop than in previous years was recorded with the new Czech varieties Sladek and Premiant, where yields were also largely affected by hail storms in May.

The contents of alpha bitter acids in the early varieties, mainly in Saaz was well under average with approx. 2 %. The contents of alpha in Premiant was also lower than average with 6,5 %. On the other hand the later varieties, eg. Sladek reached normal alpha level with 6 %.

Costs of hop growing continue to rise

The rise in prices of hops is necessary as the costs of hop growing have risen due to the rising costs of energy, fuel, fertilizers and labour. There is also a substantial need for investments in new plantings, new hop trellis and hop machinery. The rising costs and low prices (which in the Czech Republic have not changed for the last 10 years after their decline in the first half of 1990s) have been also the main reason for the declining hop acreage, especially the Saaz variety, in previous years. The economics of hop growing in the Czech Republic are also largely affected by the development of CZK/EUR exchange rate. The production of hops can only be maintained if there is a further rise in the farmer contract prices which would reflect the current costs of hop growing.

Czech Republic with the Saaz variety is the largest producer of fine aroma hops in the world.

Apart from this main variety there is a successful production of new Czech varieties based in their breeding on Saaz hops. Sladek and Premiant are already well established in breweries, Agnus also shows very promising results. Recently registered was a new aroma variety Harmonie. The certification process in the Czech Republic guarantees our customers the origin of the high quality Czech hops.

Hop Museum in Zatec

After a year long reconstruction the Hop Museum in Zatec was opened again for public on 5th May 2007 during the Zatec Spring Hop Festival.

The largest hop museum in the world now offers new expositions on the first floor and new multimedia projections including an animated movie about Czech hops on the ground floor

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 .