2020 United States Hop Production Down & Hop Acreage Up

Technical Support | On Dec. 22, 2020, the US Department of Agriculture reported that US hop production for 2020 decreased 7% from last year, yielding 104 million pounds down from 2019’s record yield of 112 million pounds. Acreage increased in Washington by 1388 acres, in Idaho by 910 acres but decreased in Oregon by 202 acres with an overall increase of 3%. Washington State produced 71% of the hop crop, Idaho 17% and Oregon 12%. The overall hop yield per acre was 1,770 pounds down 211 pounds from last year.

The disconnect between lower production yields and increase in acres grown was due to a number of factors. Firstly high winds in Washington State during harvest caused some hop fields to fall to the ground causing some production loss. Also, fires in Oregon which started in early September and lasted nearly 3 weeks blocked out some of the sunlight getting to plants. It is believed this reduction in light caused many hop plants to stop growing further reducing production yields. Finally as brewer’s preferences for certain hop varieties change, so does the acreage of those varieties grown. Idaho saw over 2,200 acres replanted. Oregon replanted over 420 acres and stopped growing on 202 acres.  Washington replanted over 5,900 acres and added 1,388 new acres.  Nearly 17% of the US hop acreage was replanted or new.  These first year “baby” crops don’t yield like mature plants that have been in the ground for two or three years. Hence a combination of factors are responsible for the decrease in production vs acreage increase.

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