USA & Germany: Latest hops acreage data from US, Germany show world hop acreage will decline less than expected
The official acreage data for the major hop growing countries USA and Germany have been published recently. According to these, world hop acreage will decrease slightly less than expected by the International Hop Growers' Convention (IHGC) in April, HVG said in their June report.
Due to the official data from the US and Germany, the HVG analysts still expect a worldwide decline in acreage of around 2,000 ha (-3%), which is mostly driven by the US. After US hop growers continued increasing acreage throughout the past ten years, acreage falls again for the first time.
There is a noticeable shift in hop variety categories. According to HVG’s calculations, production acreage of aroma hops decreased worldwide by 10%, while production acreage of high alpha varieties increased by 10%.
The increase in high alpha acreage in Germany does not only affect variety Herkules but also Polaris and the new variety Titan. The rise in this category basically compensates the decline in German aroma hops.
According to the USDA, acreage in the US decreased by around 2,000 ha (-8%). While high alpha acreage was reduced by around 800 ha in 2022, it rose by more than 1,500 ha in 2023. When it comes to aroma varieties, there was a reduction in acreage of almost 4,000 ha. Varieties Citra and Mosaic showed an especially significant decline.
Due to the afore-mentioned data, HVG conclude the following:
• The weak crop in Europe in 2022 and the increasing demand has further limited high alpha availability. Therefore, there has been a lot of market activity since the end of 2022.
• The increased price level for long-term contracts led to significant increases in high alpha acreage in the US and Germany.
• The intense change in US aroma variety acreage was necessary, as over the past years high inventories have been built up. Almost half of the free acreage was used to plant high alpha hops again. It remains to be seen whether the current price level in the US will be sufficient for hop growers in order to profitably produce bitter hops in the long term.
• Crop 2022 has also made clear that breweries have sufficient inventories and pre-contracts of German aroma hops. Consequently, there is limited demand at the moment.
• This means that there will also be a shift from aroma to bitter varieties in Germany, however in much smaller dimensions.
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