Plenty has happened since our last publication of The Wire in January. Significant events in our annual calendar have come and gone, including a very successful harvest and the operation of Hop Central’s pellet plant for processing crop 2025. We farewelled Tim Lord after the opening event at Hop Central and the April Board meeting in Myrtleford.
Hopefully everyone has read the HPA crop report published in May. If not, check it out on our website. Before yield or quality, it’s most important to note the incredible safety record for the harvest period. As safety is everyone’s responsibility, well done to you all on this fantastic result. Combine that with an uptick in overall yields and good quality at bale intake, we have delivered a great result from the 2025 harvest.
Hop Central operations started at the beginning of April, on crop 2025 material. It’s been a journey bringing this fantastic new site to life, and as each week passed, the team continued to improve throughput and quality outcomes. Already, crop 2025 pellets are reaching brewers here in Australia and I am looking forward to our customers feedback on what we have achieved.
Looking outside the business, market conditions continue to be challenging. Global beer volume has increased over the last two year, which reverses a long running trend of slow global volume decline. For HPA, the bulk of sales are into the higher hop usage segment of ‘craft’ breweries, which unfortunately are down more significantly than traditional brewers. While we continue to work with the BarthHaas group and our regional distributors to invigorate sales, crop ’26 will see a decline in sales volume destined for craft brewing purpose and a lift in hops grown for the alpha acid market. There is a significant difference in the financial returns selling into these two different market segments.
On a quality note, audit season has concluded successfully. Head Office and the farms have maintained a strong track record by passing their ISO 9001 and HACCP audits, reaffirming our commitment to quality management and food safety standards. A particularly exciting development from Hop Central is that we have completed both Stage 1 and Stage 2 of the FSSC 22000 audit. Following this rigorous process, we are now officially FSSC certified – a significant milestone that reflects the robustness of our systems and the dedication of our team to meeting internationally recognised standards. The processing team at Hop Central played a vital role in this achievement. They have diligently embraced our upgraded systems and consistently carried out checks and procedures. As part of our continuous improvement strategy, we are now collecting and analysing data from the harvesting and pelleting stages. This information will feed into our post-harvest review, enabling us to assess performance comprehensively and identify both strengths and areas for improvement.
On a sustainability note, the BarthHaas Group’s Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) was recently submitted and validated. By validating our climate targets, the Group demonstrates an understanding of our minimum decarbonisation requirements by which our customers and investors can measure us. To be validated, the Global Sustainability Group, including HPA’s George Webster, has completed a huge body of work, creating greenhouse gas inventories and calculating decarbonisation targets. Together HPA, HAAS and BarthHaas have committed to an emission reduction target of 63% by 2035. Following validation, the Global Sustainability Group will now prepare a draft emission reduction roadmap over the next year, which will be finalised and submitted in 2027.
