As you know, the regulations regarding the use of pesticides in hop growing have become more stringent in recent years.
Recently, there has been uncertainty regarding the active ingredients bifenazate, etaxazole and, most recently, dimethomorph.
It is possible to react in good time to regulations that will come into force at a certain point in time and apply in the future, and to take precautions with all market participants.
However, it will become problematic if the so-called “channel of trade” is to be eliminated.
This means, in plain language, that older hop products that were marketable at the time of manufacture could lose their marketability due to later, newer regulations.
This would affect all stocks held by breweries, trading houses and hop growers.
Naturally, there will always be a transition period during which the hop products can be used up and the beers produced from them must be on the market.
However, the experience of the past few months has shown that the stocks cannot be used up quickly enough to meet such deadlines.
One approach would be for the breweries to switch from conventionally treated hops to organic hop pellets type 90.
This would provide certainty for the future in that the organic P90 would not be affected if the “Channel of Trade” were to be closed.
- However, there are a few points to consider:
- Only raw hops and pellets type 90 are available in organic quality, not P45 or extracts.
- The full range of varieties is not available in organic quality.
- Organic hops can only be purchased on the basis of multi-year contracts.
- They are rarely available on the spot market or from previous harvests.
- On the basis of multi-year contracts, organic hops are about twice as expensive as conventional hop products, since the hop growers can only generate about half the yield and the amount of work involved in treating the hops with alternative means is significantly higher.
- The currently existing organic hop growing areas are only sufficient for a small proportion of all German breweries.
- In terms of alpha acid content, organic hops are at least on a par with conventional hops, and sometimes even higher.
We currently still have various varieties in P90 Bioland quality in our cold stores. Buy organic hops
If you use organic hops, you don't necessarily have to convert everything to organic.
However, it is possible to significantly minimize or eliminate the risk of pesticide residues.
If you are interested in organic P90 or require further information, please do not hesitate to contact us.