May 6, 2016
CapitalPress.com
7
Idaho hop growers to add hundreds of acres
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Courtesy of University of Idaho
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean Michael Parrella is seen with UI mascot Joe Vandal.
Farm groups help ag college
exceed fundraising goal
By SEAN ELLIS
“I think it will speak vol-
umes that this group is endors-
ing this new dean and really
MOSCOW, Idaho — The getting him set up on the right
8QLYHUVLW\RI,GDKR¶V¿UVWIRU- foot,” Kim O’Neill, CALS as-
ay into social media fundrais- sistant dean of development
ing was a success for the Col- and communications, told FPI
lege of Agricultural and Life members. “That endorsement
Sciences and its new dean.
is what we’re after.”
The college raised $30,425
Besides FPI’s overall
from 143 donors during the 36- $1,000 donation, the Ida-
hour campaign, which started ho Cattle Association, Idaho
April 26. That far surpassed Grain Producers Association,
the campaign’s $15,000 goal.
Idaho Co-op Council, Idaho
The money will go into Honey Industry Association,
the CALS Dean’s Excellence Idaho Dairymen’s Associa-
Fund, which will be used by tion, Northwest Farm Credit
Michael Parrella, the college’s Services, Idaho Sugarbeet
new dean, for special projects. Growers Association and Ida-
8,RI¿FLDOVVDLGWKDWZKLOH ho Grange, all FPI members,
they were happy with the donated toward the campaign
amount, they were more happy individually.
with Food Producers of Ida-
O’Neill told Capital Press
ho’s support for the campaign. WKDW XQLYHUVLW\ RI¿FLDOV ZHUH
FPI includes 40 of the state’s pleased with FPI’s response to
farm groups, and its members the campaign because it serves
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month to kick off the cam- CALS and Parrella, who took
paign by pledging $7,500.
over as dean in February.
FPI members quickly voted
“This is an endorsement
to donate $1,000 from the or- of the dean,” she said and FPI
ganization, and its individual members said their support
groups donated $7,000 sepa- was intended for that purpose.
rately.
“We wanted to show our
Capital Press
support for the dean and we
thought that was a good way
to demonstrate it,” said Bob
Naerebout, executive direc-
tor of IDA, which donated
$1,000.
“We are in full support of
the college and the dean. They
do a lot for agriculture and
this is one way of repaying the
favor,” said Milk Producers
of Idaho Executive Director
Brent Olmstead.
The $15,000 goal was set
to honor the college’s 115th
year and Parrella’s tenure as
the college’s 15th dean.
The excellence fund mon-
ey will be used to help CALS
students participate in scientif-
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trips. It can also be used for
scholarships.
O’Neill said it will also be
used to help achieve one of
Parrella’s main priorities of
increasing graduate and un-
dergraduate enrollment.
The money “will allow
greater contact with prospec-
tive CALS students, increas-
ing overall enrollment in the
college and on the UI cam-
pus,” Parrella said in an email.
WILDER, Idaho — Ida-
ho’s hop acreage continues to
expand at a robust rate, with
growers planning to add hun-
dreds of additional acres this
year.
“It’s still a pretty positive
(environment) for hops right
now,” said Brock Obendorf,
whose hop operation will add
350 acres in 2016. “I think this
year there will be approximately
700 new hop acres in Idaho.”
That would be a 14 percent
increase over Idaho’s 2015 total
of 4,863 hop acres.
Hop grower Nate Jackson
said that estimate sounds sol-
id and based on the amount of
hops sold recently, “There will
probably be a larger increase
next year.”
Idaho hop acreage has been
on a rapid rise since 2013,
when it totaled 3,356. Acreage
increased to 3,743 in 2014 and
4,863 in 2015.
The increase is almost all
related to soaring demand from
the craft brewing industry, hop
growers said.
Craft brewers use roughly
four times as much hops to pro-
duce beer than the industry av-
erage, according to the Brewers
Association, which represents
small and independent craft
brewers in the United States.
According to the Brewers
Association, U.S. craft brewing
volume totaled 24.5 million bar-
rels in 2015 and the retail dollar
value of that production totaled
$22 billion, a 13 percent in-
crease in volume and 16 percent
increase in value.
The number of craft brewer-
ies in the U.S. grew 15 percent
to 4,269 in 2015, according to
Bart Watson, the group’s chief
economist.
“It’s all driven by craft,”
Obendorf said of this year’s ex-
pansion of hop acres in Idaho.
“It’s all aroma hops” for the craft
industry.
Jackson said the ability to
get decent yields for baby or
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other factor in that growth, and
there is also less competition for
ground in Idaho than in Wash-
ington and Oregon.
Washington and Oregon
have also experienced sizable
increases in hop acres in recent
years but the percentage growth
is greater in Idaho.
According to USDA’s Na-
tional Agricultural Statistics
Service, total hop production in
Idaho has increased from 5.8
million pounds in 2013 to 6.9
million pounds in 2014 and 8.7
million pounds in 2015.
Yields averaged 1,740
pounds per acre in Idaho in
2013, 1,847 in 2014 and 1,794
in 2015.
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Capital Press
MOXEE, Wash. — Hop
acreage is increasing for the
fourth straight year in the
United States and for the
third year globally.
U.S. hop acreage is pro-
jected to increase by 6,000
acres this year, a 13 percent
rise. That follows a 19 per-
cent last year, according to
the Hop Growers of Ameri-
ca.
The 13 percent is a con-
servative estimate and could
be higher by the time final
figures are available. Last
year’s initial estimate was
15 percent, but the actual in-
crease was 19 percent, said
Jaki Brophy, Hop Growers
of America spokeswoman.
Of the increase, 5,400
acres are in Washington
state, Oregon and Idaho and
600 acres are in other states.
With the new acreage, the
U.S. total is 51,275 acres,
widening the gap with Ger-
many, the other leading
producer at 45,468 acres.
Germany’s acreage is up 10
percent.
The worldwide increase
is 8,347 acres, up 6.7 per-
cent, which was predicted
by the International Hop
Growers Convention in Paris
on April 18. The convention
estimates 2016 production at
232 million pounds global-
ly, up from 190.4 million in
2015. In the U.S., the esti-
mated production is 97 mil-
lion pounds, up from 80.2
million in 2015.
Of the U.S. estimate, 60.6
million pounds are aroma
varieties and 36.4 million
pounds are alpha. Aroma
varieties are mainly used by
craft breweries and alpha are
mainly used by large brew-
ers.
Drought in Europe re-
duced the worldwide produc-
tion in 2015. U.S. yields are
expected to be better due to
more acreage coming into
production and no drought
in the Yakima Valley, where
about 70 percent of the U.S.
crop is grown, Brophy said.
The acreage increase
continues to be driven by
the growing number of
craft breweries, said Ann
George, administrator of
Hop Growers of America
and the Washington Hop
Commission.
The number of breweries
in the U.S. reached 4,144
at the end of November,
topping the historic high of
4,131 in 1873, according to
the Brewers Association in
Boulder, Colo.
Brewery openings ex-
ceeded two a day in 2015
with 15 states each now
home to more than 100
breweries, the association
said. California, Oregon and
Washington are among the
top 15.
The U.S. inventory of
hops was 131 million pounds
on March 1, up 10 percent
from a year earlier. For per-
spective, that compares with
190.4 million pounds har-
vested worldwide in 2015.
“We are finally begin-
ning to see some signs of
breathing room in the supply
chain, especially in popular
craft varieties hard-hit last
summer, although we have
not reached comfortable lev-
els quite yet,” said Pete Ma-
hony, vice president of sup-
ply chain management and
purchasing at John I. Haas in
Yakima.
Early maturing aroma va-
rieties in the Yakima Valley
experienced lower yields
last year due to drought but
there’s adequate water this
year from a larger mountain
snowpack.
15-5/16 x 10 x 2
18-3/4 x 14-3/8 x 3
It looks like a good sea-
son and more breweries are
buying hops by contract ver-
sus the spot market, resulting
in more breweries reliably
having their needs met at a
known price, George said.
“We hope to see this con-
tinue, reducing reliance on
the spot market, which acts
as a good buffer for unantic-
ipated need and yield vari-
ances,” she said.
Too much spot market
supply causes market price
volatility and more grower
risk, she said.
Forward contracting also
allows growers to secure
necessary capital from lend-
ers, as they can prove their
crop is sold, George said.
That’s crucial for expan-
sion estimated at a minimum
of $40,000 per acre, includ-
ing the cost of land, growing
supplies, rootstock, labor,
equipment, harvesting, cold
storage and packaging, she
said.
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