55th Congress of the International Hop Growers’ Convention
Every two years, they come together for several days: the members of the International Hop Growers’ Convention (IHGC). Following a 19-year break, more than 140 delegates from 13 nations met in Bad Gögging in the hop growing region Hallertau from July 26 to 31 2015 to exchange ideas and make contacts. An extensive four-day program not only a offered an opportunity to learn about the work of the IHGC, but also included tours of hop farms and hop processing plants.
During the meeting of the IHGC Economic Commission, the member states made a first assessment of the 2015 hop harvest. According to these data, the worldwide total is approx. 90,000 t, that is around 6,000 t below the very good previous year’s harvest, although the acreage increased by about 3,000 ha ( 6% ) worldwide in 2015. This is mostly due to the unsually dry weather during the past weeks.
So the outlook for Germany is rather bleak with an expected minus of 16 percent; the same applies to the Czech Republic and Slovenia. Even in the US the harvest volume is only expected to grow by five percent, despite an acreage increase of 19%. The consequences for the alpha acid balance cannot be fully predicted yet, since the weather can still have a decisive impact until the harvest at the end of August.
The worldwide hop acreage 2015 is estimated at 48,664 ha established areas and 4845 ha new areas (2014: 45,127 and 1998 ha), the harvest volume amounts to an estimated 89,893 t raw hops (2014: 95693 t). Subject to weather conditions, the alpha acid production is estimated at 8729 t (2014: 9395 t).
Further topics discussed at the convention included plant protection, hop drying and the economic viability of hop growing in Germany. The Bavarian State Institute for Agriculture, Department Hops at the Hop Research Center in Hüll took the opportunity to present their research results which showed that not only the temperature, but rather the interaction with the ventilation during the various stages of hop drying leads to an optimum result.
In the final General Assembly the Hops Medal was conferred on hop experts by the IHGC Board under the leadership of President Leslie Roy, USA.
The 56th Congress of the International Hop Growers’ Convention will take place at the end of July 2016 in the USA.
