Hops Up 13 Percent in U.S. for 2016

Hop Growers of America and the Washington Hop Commission released their forecast for the 2016 season and the acreage continues to grow.

Communications Manager Jaki Brophy says the U.S. acreage is up 13 percent from last year.

“A lot of the new acreage is aroma heavy which is the more popular variety, more in demand. And a very large percentage of it is also some proprietary varieties which are high in demand as well.”

Brophy says with contracting, the numbers are usually accurate but they also tend to use the most conservative estimates.

Despite the quickly growing acreage in the Northwest and throughout the world, Brophy says the balance between supply and demand is still solid.

“This is something that everybody has an eye on of course because we don’t want an oversaturation to the point where it really drops the price and results in the market being unstable.”

Brophy was also excited that the water supply seems more stable this year and that last year’s new plantings will be even stronger this year.

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