CZECH HOP REPORT - MAY 2010 Print

Czech hop acreage in 2010



According to the report of Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture, department for hops, the total acreage of hops in the Czech Republic is 5238 hectars for the year 2010. There is a slight change from the last year acreage of 5307 hectars.

The major variety is still SAAZ fine aroma hops with 87,04 pct of total acreage. In compare with previous year Saaz variety decreased about 68 hectars. There is an increase of the varieties Sladek (+ 6 hectars) and Agnus (+ 3 hectars). Recently a new hop variety called Vital was registered for hop growing in the Czech Republic. This variety is the result of the breeding programme of the Hop research institute in Zatec. The alpha content of this variety is relatively high (12-16 %) but it is unique especially due to very high content of DMX which would be beneficial especially for the pharmaceutical usage.

New plantings have been a 191 hectars, i.e 3,65 pct. The most of new plantings have been Saaz variety, 157 hectars.

Czech hop acreage in 2010 (forecasted May 1)

Variety/Region    Saaz (ha)    Auscha (ha)    Trschitz(ha)    Czech Rep. (ha)
Saaz                        3405              572               582                 4559
Sládek                       193               15                 75                   283
Premiant                    156               51                 77                   284
Agnus                          58                 3                   0                     61
Bor                               4                 7                   0                     11
other                           23                 7                 10                     40
Total                      3839             655               744                 5238

Crop results 2009
The total hop harvest in the Czech Republic in 2009 reached 6615 t of hops.
In the Saaz hop growing region the total hop production was 4613 t, in the Auscha hop growing region the total production was 834 t and in the Tirschitz hop growing region the hop production was 1168 t.
The best world fine aroma variety - Saaz accounted for the largest share of the Czech hop production with 5395 t. There was 3845 t harvested in the Saaz hop growing region, 727 t harvested in the Auscha hop growing region and 823 t of Saaz variety harvested in the Tirschitz hop growing region. The total production of Saaz variety was slightly lower than in 2008 (5563 t). The aroma variety Sládek performed well as in the previous years and the total production reached 568 t. The production of aroma variety Premiant was 484 t and the production of the bitter variety Agnus 124 t. The total production of these varieties was slightly higher than in 2008.

Content of alpha acids
As with yields also the content of alpha acids was positively influenced by good climatic conditions of 2009 and the values were better than in the previous years. Saaz variety reached 3,9 % alpha.

Current situation in the Czech hop growing regions
The winter was relatively longer than previous year. The rainfall was under thirty year average in April. Almost during the whole of May the rainfall volumes were well over average. Unfurtunately there was hailstorm in last decade of May which damaged approximately 204 hectars (different range). The most of damages were in areas by Kounov and Mutejovice. Due to the wet and warm weather there has been a high occurance of downy mildew in a recently.