- From the latest beer market study conducted by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, we learn that hop growers have practically disappeared in Poland.
- The scale of interest in hop cultivation in Poland is basically marginal if we compare it to other directions of agricultural production.
– The number of hop growers decreased from 1.2 thousand to 0.6 thousand in 2002-2022. According to PSR 2010, almost 90% of farms
with its crops were located in the Lublin Voivodeship – we read in the UOKiK report.
Hop growers only in the Lublin region
According to ARiMR data, in the 2010 campaign, almost 81% of the area declared in applications for additional area payments for hops was located in the Lublin province, and 81% of the total amount allocated under this measure also went to this region. In the 2022 campaign, these shares were at the level of 89% each.
Tough Market. Hop Farming Is a Long-Term Investment
UOKiK writes that hop growers have limited opportunities to influence the market and respond to changing situations, e.g. in terms of consumer preferences or the occurrence of an oversupply of raw materials. This is due to the high costs of establishing a plantation and cultivation lasting a dozen or so years. This is a long-term investment.
– Changing, for example, varieties to those with higher valuation, desired by the largest entities, may be simply impossible in the short term. Storing the raw material on the farm and selling it
at a later date is only possible after proper drying, and not all plantations may have the appropriate infrastructure for this – the office notes.
The disappearing sector
The national hop area in 2022 was 1.7 thousand ha, compared to 2.2 thousand ha twenty years earlier. Thus, one hop plantation had an average area of 2.7 ha, compared to 1.8 ha in 2002. Meanwhile, in 2022 in Germany it was 19 ha, and in the Czech Republic as much as 41 ha.
– Despite smaller hop plantations in Poland, the cone yields achieved by them in the years 2002-2022 were at a competitive level compared to those obtained by growers from the Czech Republic, but worse than in Germany or in the EU countries in general – emphasizes the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.
The value of the hop harvest in Poland in 2022 amounted to PLN 59 million. It was
Although 22% higher than in the previous year, it was 17% lower than in 2019.
The hop cone harvest in Poland in 2022 amounted to 3.4 thousand tonnes, compared to 3.1 thousand tonnes in the previous year or 3.0 thousand tonnes in 2002.
– But more importantly, the production of alpha acids was 312 tons compared to 251 tons and 171 tons, respectively. So the reduction in the number and area of crops did not translate into a radical reduction in the volume of hop production. These data show that the average content of alpha acids obtained from hop cones grown in Poland increased
from less than 6% in 2002 to over 9% in 2022. Nevertheless, among the sample years 2015-2022, only in 2022 did Poland achieve alpha acid yields higher than the average in Germany – the key producer and exporter of this crop in Europe – the authors of the report emphasize.
source – UOKiK
Global leaders in the hop market
Among the largest entities in the world offering a range of hops are Yakima – an entity founded in 1988 in the United States by hop growers, currently operating in a number of countries through branches and cooperating companies. There is also BarthHaas, dating back to the late 18th century, originating from the initiative of a hop trader in Germany, and Hopsteiner – an entity operating on the hop market for over 170 years, which has developed from a group of cooperating growers to currently integrating producers and processors from Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, England, China and the United States.
