Privolzhsky Field Day “Barley, Malt, Hop and Beer of Russia”: results, photo and video report (2017-08-07)

Privolzhsky Field Day “Barley, Malt, Hop and Beer of Russia” took place in July 27 in Tsivilsky district.

The Head of the Republic Mikhail Ignatyev took part in the plenary part of the event. “Present forum, organized by Barley, Malt, Hops and Beer Union with support of the Ministry of Agriculture, united many representatives of the agricultural complex of the RF”, noted Mikhail.   

The Head of the Republic reminded that last October, the meeting with participation of the Ministry of Agriculture of the RF, unions, associations and brewing companies, took place in Chuvashia. It was devoted to the hop development in Russia.

He also underlined, that thanks to the key national project “Development of agriculture”, farmers got additional opportunities. “Today we are observing a great development of agriculture and consumer’s market and it is necessary to develop hop production with support of the Government”. 

There is a great potential in Chuvashia, including scientific base and human resources. The Republic has a modern equipment complex for hop processing, focused on increasing of production and quality improvement.

Also, Mikhail Ignatyev called foreign companies for cooperation. “We can let our lands on lease for 49 years. So, any project will be repaid for this period of time”, told Mikhail. Beer is national Chuvash beverage. In olden times, almost every family grew hop and brewed beer.  Chuvash companies, processing hop, are moving with the times. For example, hop pellet from Chuvashia is supplied to different regions of the Russian Federation.  

The Head of Chuvashia presented a Certificate of Acknowledgement and watch to the President of Barley, Malt, Hops and Beer Union. Alexander Mordovin thanked Mikhail Ignatyev for support. “We’d like to hold the Field Day in Chuvashia every year and can attract gardeners and wine makers to this business event”, noted Alexander Mordovin.

A member of the Federation Council Vadim Nikolayev also welcomed participants of the Field Day, having read a welcome letter of Mikhail Schetinin, the Chairman of the Federation Council Committee for Agrarian and Food Policy and Environmental Management.

A key topic for discussions was the development of hop production in Russia. The Deputy Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Sergey Artamonov underlined that Chuvashia was a major hop producing region of Russia with 90% of total yield and 90 year experience.

Basic resources for further increasing of hop production in the Republic are a scientific base with a unique hop collection of more than 250 hop varieties, hop trellis, harvesting combines, hop dryers, a modern complex for hop processing in JSC “Chuvashkhelprom” and LLC “AgroResources” having own hop yards and brewing production. In 2016 hop gross yield was 324 tons, taking into account yield of 14 c/ha. This year 27,5 ha of hop yards have been established with planting management of more than 33 ha.

Last year, 2 million rub. were transferred to the establishment and management of hop yards from the federal and republican budgets and 5 million rub. from the Chuvash budget for reimbursement of expenses of agricultural producers. Also it is planned to reimburse 50% of expenses for purchasing of harvesting combines and extend easy-term loans.

It bears noting that Heads of agro-projects and sales departments of brewing and malt companies, the Head of Food and Agricultural Department of the German Embassy in Moscow Dr. Hinrich Snell, Attache of the Czech Embassy Nikola Hruskova, the CEO of “Spalter Hopfen” Frank Braun and the Director of LLC “Syngenta” in Russia Jonathan Brown etc. made their reports.

Having viewed JSC “Chuvashkhmelprom” and hop pellet lines, the Head of Food and Agricultural Department of the German Embassy in Moscow Dr. Hinrich Snell gave a high estimation to this company. He noted that countries have reliable commercial relations. Maybe, in some years, Chuvash hop will be supplied to Germany.

Attache of the Czech Embassy Nikola Hruskova, also told participants of the forum about hop development in Czechia. She noted that Czechia is the greatest hop supplier but they don’t have so many hop varieties as Chuvashia. Maybe, Czech plants will be interested in Chuvash hop and cooperate with Chuvash companies.    

Summing up the results of the forum, Mikhail Ignatyev called local farmers for moving to actions. “We’ve increased the Government support and now we reimburse 80% of expenses. When a farmer lends soul to a task, the result will always come”, resumed the Head of the Republic.

Having discussed basic principles of the state policy, participants of the Field Day confirmed necessity for the development of hop production as a key raw material direction, providing implementation of the Food Safety Doctrine and Import phase out.

According to the program of the Field Day, participants viewed demonstration plots and industrial sowings of malting barley varieties, fruit bearing hop yards and young, established in spring 2017.