Germany ousted as world’s biggest hop grower by US

The US is now home to the world’s largest crops of hops, knocking Germany from the top spot for the first time in half a century.

For the first time in nearly 50 years, the USA has become the world’s biggest hop-growing country by acreage, which jumped 18% to 18,478 hectares last year, ousting Germany from the top spot for the first time since 1967.

According to an annual report from German-based hop trader the Barth-Haas Group, the US also became the top hop producer by volume in 2015, producing 36,389 tonnes, up 12% from the previous year. In comparison Germany’s output fell 26% to 28,337 tonnes after a severe drought hit the crop.

Overall, global beer production decreased in by 1.5% to 1.9 billion hectolitres in 2015, however hop acreage increased by just under 7% worldwide.

This shift highlights demand for aroma/flavour hops, spurred largely by the craft beer boom in the US – a trend that continues to build momentum in further markets.

Driven by the “craft beer movement’s appetite for US flavour hops”, 83 different varieties are now cultivated in the US, compared to 32 in Germany.

“The craft beer movement is calling for more and more different hop varieties”, the report read. “In 2012 the number of hop varieties worldwide stood at 180; today there are 250 varieties. Of that number, more than 80 different varieties are now grown in the USA. In Germany, by comparison, there are currently 32 varieties. This clearly shows where the action is in today’s hop market. However, the German hop growers have sufficient resources at their disposal to continue to play a successful part in the market.”

The report also noted the “remarkable development” in China which is increasingly declining in importance as a hop-growing country.

Following a reduction in acreage of 13% in 2015, the group said it expects acreage there to decline by a further 14% in 2016. Since 2009, hop-growing acreage in China has shrunk by two thirds.

“China, on the other hand, has failed to live up to the expectations it aroused 15 years ago and is gradually withdrawing from hop growing”, the report concluded. “The cultivation area there has dwindled to only 2,300 hectares. Having been let down by both the domestic brewing industry and the state, the hop industry in China is leading an increasingly miserable existence.”