Global demand change allows for local hops rebalance

HOP Products Australia (HPA) have completed this year’s harvest with 670 hectares and 1340 tonnes of hops across Victoria and Tasmania. HPA’s head of sales and marketing Owen Johnston said this was a 177 hectare decrease and a 480 tonne decrease year-on-year across six proprietary varieties: Eclipse, Ella, Enigma, Galaxy, Topaz and Vic Secret, as well as Cascade. “Crop 2024 looks a little different to previous years,” he said. “Some changes to global demand led us to idle 20 per cent of their gardens. “This production decrease was a necessary step towards rebalancing supply and demand, and an opportunity to get hyperfocused on Aussie hop quality. “We had greater flexibility to fine tune our standard operating procedures and harvest each variety at optimal maturity. “Impact in beer is expected to remain strong, with this year’s average oil content coming in equal or above the five year average for all proprietary hops. “Galaxy and Enigma were the star performers with both oils and alphas above the five year average, which should lead to a great year of true-to-type flavours and aromas in beer.” HPA general manager operations Hans Dreyer said the production decrease also meant an earlier finish to the season. “Early on in the season we had a wet weather spell so we changed the program to adjust for waterlogging in some of the blocks, but later on through the season it dried up and we had quite an average season; temperature-wise,” he said. “This assisted with the growth so it recovered later on in the season. “Quality wise, the internal quality of oil is higher with an uptick of content; all good indicators towards quality as far as harvest timing goes. “We started as per the planned schedule in the first days of March and, because of the reduction in hectares this year which were left idle to rebalance that supply and demand, we ended a bit earlier, around March 23, but this also helped with the very early Easter weekend we had.” Mr Dreyer said this gives HPA a window of opportunity to look at current stock in the ground, all plantings, and give some blocks a year of rest. “It’s an opportunity to get on top of some of the weeds and other maintenance issues we had in older gardens and it also gives us the opportunity now to replant and look at some of the experimental varieties,” he said. “Like any other agriculture product you have a lifespan for any plant and at this stage the overall yield as the plant ages would reduce. “With a demand to have 100 per cent of our operational areas in production, that maintenance gets put to back burner whereas the opportunity in the market now gives us a window to reassess some of these yields in older areas and make decisions for future planting. “Now we’re just in post-harvest stages so we’ve started some weed control in various areas, both mechanical and chemical, and at this stage it's just maintenance and cleaning on equipment and facilities.”

Global demand change allows for local hops rebalance

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