Czech Republic: Czech hop growers produced 6310,7 tonnes of hops in 2004

In 2004 Czech hop growers produced 6,310.7 metric tonnes of hops compared to 5,526.8 metric tonnes of hops in 2003 (+14.2%), according to the figures published by Hop Growers Union of the Czech Republic. The average yield for 2004 was 1,08 t/ha, which corresponds with the years 2001 and 2002 and is 16% higher than last year.

The production in the main growing region of Saaz reached 4435,5 t of hops, the highest yields were recorded in the Moravian Tirschitz region with 1,51 t/ha.

Saaz hops, the Czech variety, accounted for 87,4% of the Czech production with average yield of 1,02t/ha. The quality was very good and the alpha content also better than in two previous years. Very good yields and quality were also achieved with the new Czech varieties Premiant, Sladek and Agnus. The production of these varieties is slowly increasing year by year thanks to demand in the Czech breweries but also in many breweries abroad. Due to strong demand for high quality Czech hops there are no remaining quantities of hops at growers, Hop Growers Union of the Czech Republic said.

Czech Republic is the fourth largest hop producer after Germany, USA and China. In 2004 world hop production totalled about 92,300 metric tonnes, according to preliminary estimations.

The main hop growing variety continues to be Saaz semi-early red-bine hops belonging to the fine aroma hops group. Hops in the Czech Republic is grown in three regions - Saaz, Trschitz and Auscha. Currently (2004) hops is grown on 5838 ha, where the largest region is Saaz with 4382 ha, followed by Auscha with 756 ha and Trsitz with 700 ha.

Recently new hop varieties based on the Saaz variety were endorsed in the Czech Republic. In 1995 varieties BOR and SLÁDEK were added to the list of endorsed varieties and in 1996 it was variety PREMIANT. These new varieties fulfil the precondition of higher alpha content and higher yields while other characteristics rank them amongst the best in aroma and dual purpose group. New varieties seem to be useful especially for the second hopping stage. In 2000 new alpha variety AGNUS was registered. This variety is suitable for first hopping either in form of extract or pellets.

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