Hop production struggled last year. Europe especially. As we reported, drought and heat wave took a serious toll on European hop farms in 2022. The German crop, one of the most important in the world, is estimated to be down by 18 percent vs. a normal crop and down by 20.4 percent compared to the 2021 crop, which yielded 47.862 tonnes. American hop yards struggled as well, battling cold spring weather, late plantings and big wind and rain storms. This was recently confirmed in the 2022 USDA-NASS National Hop Report, which noted production was down 12 percent.
To put that number in perspective, last year’s USDA-NASS National Hop Report noted production for the Pacific Northwest (where nearly all hops are grown in the United States) totaled a record high of 15.6 million lbs in 2021, which was up 11 percent from the 2020 crop of 104 million lbs. These are the ups and down of hop farming. Interested in learning more?
Here are some other factiods about the last year’s harvest via the 2022 USDA-NASS National Hop Report.
- Production for Idaho, Oregon and Washington in 2022 totaled 101 million pounds, down 12 percent from the crop of 116 million pounds.
- Combined area harvested for Idaho, Oregon and Washington in 2022 totaled 59,785 acres, down 2 percent from the record high 2021 level of 60,872 acres.
- Harvested acreage increased in Oregon but decreased in Idaho and Washington.
- The United States hop yield, at 1,694 lbs per acre, is down 206 lbs from a year ago.
- Washington produced 71 percent of the United States hop crop for 2022; while Idaho accounted for 16 percent and Oregon accounted for 13 percent.
- In Washington, Citra, Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus, Mosaic, Cascade and Simcoe were the five leading varieties, accounting for 54 percent of the state’s hop production.
- In Idaho, Mosaic, Citra, Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus, Cascade and Idaho 7 were the major varieties, accounting for 59 percent of the state’s hop production.
- In Oregon, Citra, Strata, Mosaic, Cascade and Nugget were the major varieties, accounting for 65 percent of the state’s hop production.
- The 2022 value of production for the United States totaled $618 million, down 7 percent from the previous year.
[…] portfolio cooled un poquito… American hop production took a 12 percent hit in 2022, almost as bad as Europe’s 20 percent bine beating… 2018 called, it wants this Wall Street Journal article […]