World hop production 1896 - 1909

The table craziness continues. I'm not sure why, but I seem to be regaling you with table after table currently. Blame my mania for collecting statistics. And Stan Hieronymous. He pointed me in the direction of this set.

In the period covered by this table, world hop production was dominated by four regions: the German Empire, Bohemia, the UK and America (not sure if it's just the USA of if Canada is also included). As the second table makes more clear, between 80% and 90% of the world's hops were produced in these regions. ANd in the German Empire, more than 50% of the hops were grown in Bavaria.

I'm going to have to dig out my Brauwelt Breviers and Statistical Handbooks because I'm sure they have recent figures on hop production. I'm pretty sure that the overall picture is similar but for one thing: the UK's share. While Bohemia, Bavaria and the USA remain major players in hop growing, the British industry has seen a steep decline in the last couple of decades. I really should dig out the numbers to show just how catastrophic a collapse there's been.

World hop production 1896 - 1909
Country	Area of production (hectares)		Estimated production (thousands of 50 kg)
	1908	1909	1896	1897	1898	1899	1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905	1906	1907	1908	1909
Bavaria	22,952	18,634	275	208	262	298	225	110	272	260	239	325	250	263	307	86
Württemberg	4,967	3,783	73	67	69	107	78	54	68	66	70	87	52	61	68	12
Baden	1,664	1,308	48	34	30	48	29	25	35	28	35	38	31	29	35	2
Alsace-Lorraine	4,564	4,131	85	75	63	83	77	55	65	70	79	125	72	95	104	12
Prussia and the rest of Germany	1,684	1,108	29	29	12	45	24	25	26	25	19	32	17	22	22	7
German Empire	35,831	28,964	510	473	436	581	433	269	466	449	442	607	422	470	536	119
France	3,030	2,800	63	72	61	79	72	64	50	57	51	71	75	79	80	27
Bohemia	17,280	15,420	185	117	150	195	155	282	133	65	128	293	103	236	284	104
Oberösterreich	849	849													7	4
Styria	4,395	3,252													25	22
Galicia	2,585	2,548	45	45	36	59	58	64	51	48	52	68	71	82	18	14
Moravia, Karinthia	607	512													10	5
Hungary, Transylvania	1,154	1,154													15	15
Belgium and Holland	2,341	1,922	88	70	25	103	52	80	65	83	103	107	45	55	78	29
Russia and other districts	10,160	8,412	128	120	64	80	80	80	60	60	40	100	55	80	75	60
Continental Europe	78,232	65,833	1019	897	772	1097	850	839	825	712	816	1246	771	1002	1128	399
UK	15,762	13,179	453	417	302	661	353	640	311	480	290	707	249	380	475	205
Europe	93,994	79,012	1472	1314	1134	1758	1203	1479	1136	1142	1106	1053	1020	1382	1603	604
America	20,251	17,659	309	344	339	380	329	332	360	402	435	504	571	520	410	310
Australia	861	750	14	15	13	15	16	15	15	14	14	15	15	14	14	10
World	115,106	97,421	1795	1673	1486	2153	1548	1826	1511	1558	1555	2472	1606	1916	2027	924
Source:
Barth Report 1910
http://www.barthhaasgroup.com/images/pdfs/Lupulo%201909-1910.pdf

World hop production 1896 - 1909 in % share
	1896	1897	1898	1899	1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905	1906	1907	1908	1909
Bavaria	15.32%	12.43%	17.63%	13.84%	14.53%	6.02%	18.00%	16.69%	15.37%	13.15%	15.57%	13.73%	15.15%	9.31%
German Empire	28.41%	28.27%	29.34%	26.99%	27.97%	14.73%	30.84%	28.82%	28.42%	24.56%	26.28%	24.53%	26.44%	12.88%
Bohemia	10.31%	6.99%	10.09%	9.06%	10.01%	15.44%	8.80%	4.17%	8.23%	11.85%	6.41%	12.32%	14.01%	11.26%
UK	25.24%	24.93%	20.32%	30.70%	22.80%	35.05%	20.58%	30.81%	18.65%	28.60%	15.50%	19.83%	23.43%	22.19%
America	17.21%	20.56%	22.81%	17.65%	21.25%	18.18%	23.83%	25.80%	27.97%	20.39%	35.55%	27.14%	20.23%	33.55%
total	81.17%	80.75%	82.57%	84.39%	82.04%	83.41%	84.05%	89.60%	83.28%	85.40%	83.75%	83.82%	84.11%	79.87%
Source:
Barth Report 1910
http://www.barthhaasgroup.com/images/pdfs/Lupulo%201909-1910.pdf

 

The numbers also show the volataility in hop production, with large differences from year to year. In the best year in this set, 1905, output was almost 2.5 times that of the worst year, 1909. You have to suspect something climatic, as the poor harvest seems to only apply to Europe in that year.


Hang on, I do have the 1953 numbers to hand. Let's compare 1908 and 1953. Should be fun. (I'm using 1908 because 1909 was a particularly poor year in Europe.)

Hop production 1909 - 1953 (kg)
Country	1908	%	1953	%
USA	20,500,000	20.23%	18,938,426	31.52%
United Kingdom	23,750,000	23.43%	13,513,440	22.49%
Czechoslovakia	14,200,000	14.01%	4,999,973	8.32%
Germany	26,800,000	26.44%	14,250,075	23.72%
France	4,000,000	3.95%	2,449,844	4.08%
Belgium	3,900,000	3.85%	974,339	1.62%
Australia	700,000	0.69%	1,422,467	2.37%
World Total	101,350,000		60,081,618
Sources:
Barth Report 1910
1955 Brewers' Almanack, page 65.

You can see that hop production fell everywhere except Australia. The UK's share of world production stayed much the same, at around 23%. Germany's share fell a little and the USA's increased a little. But the four largest producers are exactly the same as in 1908. Why had hop production fallen? Because demand for hops had, particluarly in the UK. The drop in beer gravity and the move to less hoppy beer caused a huge fall in the quantity of hops required. It must have had a big impact on the world market, as the UK had been using a considerable proportion of the world's hops.