Hop Products Australia (HPA) have completed the 2021 hop harvest. We picked 675 hectares across our three farms, which resulted in 1,526 metric tonnes of hops. This was a 44 hectare (6.9%) net increase and a 25 metric tonne (1.6%) decrease year-on-year across six proprietary varieties – Eclipse®, Ella™, Enigma®, Galaxy®, Topaz™ and Vic Secret™ – as well as Cascade. Our Galaxy® crop grew 7.2% year on year, marking 11 years of continuous growth, with the exception of 2016 when we were hit with significant hail damage. Eclipse® looks set to follow in Galaxy®‘s footsteps after exceeding expectations in its second year of commercialisation. It has now been used by more than 500 brewers around the world in a range of beer styles including NEIPAs, IPAs, XPAs, pilsners, witbiers and saisons. Sustainably scaling up Eclipse®, Galaxy® and Vic Secret™ has been the focus of a continuing $35 million expansion of our Victorian farms. Since the project was announced in 2019 we have planted an additional 270 hectares, 110 of which were planted in 2020. This leaves an additional 30 hectares to plant in 2021, which will take our total farming operations to more than 800 hectares. All additional acreage will reach commercial maturity by 2024, at which point Eclipse® is forecast to reach 180 metric tonnes, making it our third biggest proprietary variety. This season our three farms – Bushy Park Estates, Rostrevor Hop Gardens and Buffalo River Valley – endured the La Niña weather pattern which resulted in slightly cooler daytime temperatures due to increased cloud cover, particularly in the weeks preceding harvest. While these conditions had a positive impact on early vegetative growth, the decrease in daylight hours reduced the total number of flowering sites and some cones fought to reach full maturity by their harvest window which adversely impacted total yield. Despite total yield coming in slightly under expectation, our commitment to responsible contracting will allow us to meet all obligations, with the exception of Ella™, which came in 22% under contracted volumes. We will work closely with our brewing customers to minimise the impact of this outcome, including identifying suitable replacement hops from our international and advanced product portfolio. Topaz™ and Cascade were also down year-on-year, but this was due to reductions and idling of acreage. We also completed our pivot from alpha hops to almost exclusively proprietary flavour hops. This included grubbing all Super Pride acreage, which remained unplanted this season in preparation for deployment later in the year. * Due to reductions and idling of acreage Note: measurements calculated on raw hop quantities. Impact in beer was not effected by the seasonal conditions, with this year’s average oil content coming in above the 5-year average for all varieties except Enigma®. These year- on-year improvements in quality outcomes are set to continue as we have recently restructured our business to create a new division of Agronomic Services. The division’s role is to identify beneficial farming practices that will lead to improved yield, quality and efficiencies across our three farms. This is an extension of our strategy to grow alongside our brewing customers by continuing to offer choice and diversity through the commercialisation of experimental varieties, and supporting successful beers by backing our more popular Aussie hops with significant acreage. Note: measurements calculated on raw hop quantities. Processed hop pellets will show reduced values. There is more to a successful harvest than yield and impact in beer. We also consider the health, safety and productivity of our team. Due to the ongoing situation surrounding COVID-19 we had to work a little harder to fill our seasonal positions this year, but we still managed to source sufficient people to complete harvest in the planned window without any serious injuries. Normally we would have spent the harvest hosting brewing customers on farm. Unfortunately, the past year has been anything but normal, so we decided to keep our farms closed to anyone non-essential to protect the health of our team and ensure the farms remained COVID-free and fully operational. But because it has been such a rough year for our brewing customers, we wanted to show our support by inviting brewers and beer lovers around the world to be part of a virtual harvest from the comfort and safety of their own home. The experience included tours of our farms and breeding facilties, insights into our no-nonsense approach to quality and sustainability, advice on brewing with green hops and maximising hop flavour in beer, tourism recommendations for when brewing customers are able to visit our growing regions again, and a chance to connect with fellow brewers. It will continue to be available here for those who want a refresher on the technical content or are simply feeling nostalgic for the sights and sounds of our Aussie hop harvest. Despite an increase in acreage this harvest, the slight decrease in total yield and highly contracted position of crop 2021 means that a very limited amount of hops will be available in the short-term. This situation, together with our expansion project drawing to a close, suggests that forward contracting is now more important than ever for supply security. Brewers are encouraged to communicate their Aussie hop needs to our sales team sooner rather than later. Managing DirectorTim Lord April 2021
Download file PDF: Crop Report 2021 – Tiếng Việt, Crop Report 2021 – English
