BarthHaas Report 2024/2025 on the 2024 hop harvest Hop industry is still fighting oversupply

Nuremberg, July 22, 2025. The structural change in the hop industry continued in 2024, with falling acreage accompanied by market oversupply: World hop acreage declined for the third year in succession – by 7.7 percent from 2023 to 2024 alone to stand at 55,715 hectares. This can be read in the BarthHaas Report 2024/2025 that the world’s leading hop specialist presented at an online press conference on July 22.

Germany returned to top place among the hop-growing countries as acreage adjustments were delayed due to existing forward contracts. In 2024, German acreage was reduced by only 1.6 percent, while the reduction continued in 2025 by further 7 percent to a total of 18.962 hectares. The USA saw large-scale idling of acreage amounting to almost 18 percent, bringing the total there down to 18,513 hectares in 2024. The Czech Republic remained a distant 3rd, with 4,845 hectares.

World crop volume shrinks

There was also a decline in global crop volume in 2024 – albeit to a lesser extent – by 3.9 percent to 113,538 mt. However, the alpha acid content in the hops increased slightly – by 1.0 percent to 11,912 mt. Last year’s global average was 10.5 percent, compared with the previous year’s 10.0 percent. As was the case in 2023, the ratio of aroma hops to bitter hops shifted in favor of bitter hops again in 2024 in terms of both crop and alpha yield.

(Note: Alpha acid is the most important hop constituent for brewing and is responsible for the bitterness of the beer. Hop growers sell their hops partly on the basis of the alpha volume delivered, and alpha acid is also often a price factor in contracts with breweries.) 

Number of hop growers falls

Sector concentration also continued in 2024 as part of the structural change. In Germany, a further 31 hop growers discontinued production. The average planted acreage of the remaining 1,009 farms rose by 0.3 hectares to 20.1 hectares in crop year 2024.

However, that does not mark the end of the change process: “The market remains structurally oversupplied and the hop industry is struggling to cope with surpluses that have largely been forward-contracted, but have not been used,” explains Heinrich Meier, author of the BarthHaas Report. “Further acreage reduction is therefore essential if the market is to return to equilibrium.”

Beers with lower hop content preferred

The declining demand for hops can be explained by changes in the beer market worldwide:

“The trend toward mainstream beers and alcohol-free and low-alcohol variants continued in 2024 and in fact gained further momentum,” explains Thomas Raiser, Managing Director of BarthHaas. “These beers are generally more lightly hopped.”

A decline in hop dosage can be seen even in the craft beer segment – due on the one hand to the increasing use of efficient hop products and on the other to a change toward traditional bottom-fermented beer styles requiring more moderate hop addition. 

Aside from the changing trends, other factors are contributing to the fall in hop demand particularly in the traditional beer nations among the western industrialized countries. These include aging populations, competition from a considerably greater variety of beverages, and not least a decline in purchasing power in economically difficult times.

Reliable support in difficult times

The market environment remains challenging: Weakening and increasingly cost-conscious demand from a brewing industry that is eager for low market prices is colliding with rising production costs caused by inflation in energy, material, and labor costs.

As experts familiar with the developments in the beer and beverage sector, BarthHaas more than ever provides reliable support for both suppliers and customers in this difficult situation. “We can show breweries and other beverage manufacturers how to use current trends to their own advantage,” says Thomas Raiser. “Hops are very special ingredients – they can be the key to variety and clean-label products and make all the difference when it comes to flavor in high-growth no & low categories.”

About BarthHaas

BarthHaas is one of the world’s leading suppliers of hop products and hop-related services. The family-owned company specialises in the creative and efficient use of hops and hop products. As visionaries, instigators and implementers of ideas, BarthHaas has been shaping the market surrounding a unique raw material for over 225 years.

The complete media package including pictures and graphics can be downloaded from our news room following this link: https://www.barthhaas.com/company/news/news-article/bh/barthhaas-report-2024-2025-on-the-2024-hop-harvest.

Download the full report: https://www.barthhaas.com/resources/barthhaas-report-23-24

Contact:

Thomas Raiser

Managing Director

BarthHaas GmbH & Co. KG Tel. +49 911 5489 115  thomas.raiser@barthhaas.de

Third-party news items that are posted on the Guild website come from press releases and emails received by the Guild. These are posted as they have been received. Their publication on the Guild website is an informational service only and is neither an endorsement of the content, nor its sender, by the Guild. For enquiries, please use the contact details that can be found at the bottom of each post.