The harvest is imminent in the Hallertau.
But what about hops and what yields can the industry hope for?
The planters association gives answers.
Hallertau
- According to the German Hop Growers Association, the industry will remain exciting in 2021: On the one hand, the global hop industry is feeling the effects of the corona pandemic.
On the other hand, a new disease, the Citrus Bark Cracking Viroid (CBCVd), has been reported in German hop growing since 2019, which can cause considerable damage to the hop plants.
In addition to a brief review of the hop year 2021 in Germany, the growers' association published the official hop harvest estimate for Germany before the start of the hop harvest, as it does every year.
Foreign seasonal workers
In 2021, hop growers in this country will already be experts in dealing with the corona pandemic.
With information events and documents that can be downloaded, the regional associations of the planter organizations ensure that farmers are always up to date with the latest regulations on hygiene concepts for seasonal workers.
According to the association, the good implementation of the regulations is shown time and again during controls by the responsible health authorities.
The seasonal workers were able to enter the country again this spring, taking into account all requirements.
Thus, the companies were able to carry out the spring work in the current season almost in the usual way.
Diseased plants
Since the first detection of the CBCVd in the Hallertau in 2019, the distribution of this viroid has been carefully examined.
According to the association, a risk-based monitoring program was also carried out by the Bavarian State Institute for Agriculture in 2021, with every hop grower being able to submit additional samples of abnormal plants.
The 2021 monitoring program determined that the CBCVd continues to occur only in the previously known infested regions.
In the current areas, however, the monitoring identified three further affected hop farms.
In the newly discovered farms, only sporadic infections with CBCVd were found.
Mixed harvest forecast
Despite the cool weather conditions in spring and the associated growth deficit compared to previous years, the hop stocks were able to make up for this deficit, especially in June and July, according to the association's report. Thus, currently well-developed hop stocks can be seen. The high amounts of precipitation ensured that the hops were supplied with sufficient water throughout the entire growing season. At the same time, the precipitation was responsible for the fact that in some cases only limited time windows were available for pesticide treatments.
Compared to 2020, the loss of yield due to wilting is lower, but due to the high amounts of precipitation, fungal diseases had ideal growth conditions. Powdery mildew and downy mildew had to be combated regularly this year, whereby, according to the association, the frequent occurrence of downy mildew has to be emphasized. The powdery mildew appeared noticeably early in the current year, so that appropriate plant protection measures were necessary here as well.
Overall, maintaining plant health in German hop production in 2021 was a challenge that could be mastered with a corresponding effort. However, it is currently still unclear whether the external quality of the 2021 harvest will be able to reach the level of previous years due to the numerous rainfall. The hop growers are a little more optimistic about the alpha values. First indications give hope for good values.
The hop harvest begins at the end of August.
The official harvest estimate in the Hallertau growing area took place this week on Tuesday and Wednesday.
A yield of 823,000 quintals was estimated on a total cultivation area of 17,122 hectares.
In the other growing areas, the estimates were also made in the past few days.
57,685 quintals are expected in Tettnang, 61,171 in Elbe-Saale and 14,600 quintals in Spalt.
In mid-July, a severe storm destroyed large parts of the hop area in the Bitburg cultivation area.
The estimated harvest volume for 2021 has been halved and is forecast at 450 quintals.
This results in a total of 956,906 quintals for Germany - and is around two percent above the 2020 harvest.
Sale secured
After some time with almost no market activity between hop growers and trading houses, according to information from the Hop Growers Association, since May the trading houses have again offered contracts to the producers.
Contracts for the Hercules, Polaris, Perle, Hallertauer Tradition and Hersbrucker varieties are mainly offered.
According to the report, the term of the contracts extends until 2031, although shorter contract terms can also be agreed.
The pre-contract quota for the next five years is already very high, which means that a very high proportion of the German cultivation area is already under contract and the sale of the hops for the German growers has already been secured.
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