Green gold

Between my beer reviews (or beer tastings if you will) I'd like to bring you some information about beer in general.

Recently a member of hop processing conglomerate Barth Haas Group, namely Joh. Barth&Sohn GmbH has published a yearly report on beer (first report was published in 1877).

The key findings are as follows:
- world beer production has increased from 1,696,459hl (2006) to 1,787,415hl (2007)
- Poland is in top 5 Europe and top 10 World (that is my key finding)
- crop year 2007 will be remembered as turbo boom year
- year 2007 = scarsity of hops and exorbitant prices
- area under hop cultivation has increased to 50659 ha
- Pareto principle proves itself once again, 20 countries make up 80% of total beeer production

Below you will find the Europe TOP 5 and World TOP 10 in beer production.

TOP 5 Europe (in hl)

Country	2006	2007
Russia	99900	116000
Germany	107174	105000
United Kingdom	53763	50511
Poland	32500	35500
Spain	33600	34350

TOP 10 World (in hl)

Country	2006	2007
China	351515	393137
USA	231161	233746
Russia	99900	116000
Germany	107174	105000
Brazil	93600	96000
Mexico	78162	81000
Japan	62980	62804
United Kingdom	53763	50511
Poland	32500	35500
Spain	33600	34350

The full report can be found here.