Washington, USA.

This is the largest producer of hops in the United States, and perfectly replicates the favorite growing environment of European-style hops: the latitude line at 49 degrees north latitude, 16 hours of sunlight in summer, a huge temperature difference between day and night, and very little precipitation......

Washington State has been fortunate to have been hit by the harsh weather impacts around the world this year, and the weather has been very favorable so far.

For Aiken, the main manager and general manager of Elk Hill Farm, such good weather means that the best batch of hops in history can be harvested.

Elk Hill Farm is the largest hop growing farm in the United States, with 10 varieties of conventional hops and 108 varieties of experimental hops.

And the other identity is the hop supply base of Budweiser, the number one beer brand in the United States.

As a horticultural crop with intensive capital, large investment in mature labor and high requirements for planting management, the development and growth of the American hop planting industry is no accident - the world's most complete and advanced hop research institutions ensure high quality and high production of hops, and large customers such as Budweiser ensure long-term purchase contracts, so that new products can continue to emerge.

The critical period of hop picking is about to begin, and Aiken is trembling, and there is no room for failure - the more scarce the hops, the more delicate they are. Once the harvest is in full swing, it is necessary to harvest the hops day and night, and the hops must not be harvested even one or two hours apart, otherwise the flavor will be lost.

But what you're afraid of, it's just what you want!

In the third week of August, when the farm was supposed to be at its busiest, there was a sense of despair - it had been raining outside for a week!

Rain is extremely rare in Washington State at this time, let alone a week of rain in a row. The continuous rain may be a good thing for other crops to alleviate the heat, but for the hops to be harvested, it is a bolt from the blue!

Just a week later, Aiken doesn't have much hope for this year's harvest.

- He didn't try to harvest a batch of hops in the rain and then quickly dry them up, but just as they climbed the vines and became positive, the hot and humid conditions simply destroyed most of their flavor!

Oh God, why did you give me hope and make such a big joke!

But what Aiken didn't know yet was that an even bigger crisis was yet to come.

"Five Bucket Cloud Rain Array (Fourth Order) trigger, main water system, range: 1,000 kilometers in radius. Effect: Gather clouds and dissolve rain. It can make the water airflow and turn wind and clouds into rain. ”

"The needle falls on the dust array (fourth order) trigger, the main gold system, range: a radius of 1,000 kilometers. Effect: Inhibition, trapping. Creatures are in array, either inhibiting or trapping. ”

Hops are very demanding in terms of growing conditions and are produced in a very concentrated area. Almost all hops in the United States are produced in Washington, Oregon and Idaho.

- Concentration means that it is easy to be caught by someone.

The former is just ruining this season's hop harvest, but the latter is simply digging the foundation for many years to come.

Qi Zheng intends to maintain the rainfall covering the three states for half a month, and the "needle falling into the dust" will continue to destroy the vitality of most hops by releasing wave frequencies that are extremely incompatible with the hop biomagnetic field - if the hot and rainy environment lasts for more than half a month, it is not so strange for hops who prefer a cool and dry environment to suffer heavy losses.

Qi Zheng has always been very cautious about the application of the "Needle Falling Array", because the characteristics of this spirit array can easily cause "accidental injury" to humans - if it is not completely unaffected by the wave frequency of humans, he will not consider the application at all, this is a "weapon" of mass destruction!

Coincidentally, the wave frequency against hops is completely harmless to humans!

The United States is one of the world's major hop growers, accounting for 13 percent of the world's hop production. Of course, the damage to the U.S. beer industry is undoubtedly the greatest, and the change from an exporter to an importer is not as simple as a price increase.

It's not a matter of a year or two. Hops are crops that have been planted for many years, and can theoretically be harvested continuously for ten or twenty years. Again, it's not a matter of a year or two to recover – that's if someone doesn't continue to do it.

Of course, at the moment people are not aware of the seriousness, and more are just lamenting the drastic reduction in hop production this year.

......

At a time when other brewers haven't felt the same way, AB InBev doesn't feel good.

——Who made AB InBev's hop supply base the focus of Qi Zheng's crackdown?

The most direct impact on beer production is the raw materials.

"This summer, the dry and hot weather in Europe led to a reduction in hop production in Germany and other countries, and after the hot and humid weather in the domestic hop harvest season, the price of hops has risen by 50% for some varieties, and some varieties have been completely out of stock......," said AB InBev's Global Raw Material Sourcing Manager, who immediately realized the extent of the problem after reporting to Group President Brito.

Britto asked with a tense face, "What about the long-term contracts and active physical inventory we have?"

For a large group like AB InBev, stocking up on hops in cold storage is a must, for example, in the immediate situation.

"Conventional varieties are sufficient to cope with the current shortage of hop supply, but the stock of many fragrant varieties is not optimistic......

He can't help it, isn't it? Some special varieties of fragrant flowers are not high in yield, and they are not easy to preserve.

Brito's heart sank when he heard this.

It is important to know that special, in-demand hops are often used in the production of high-end products, and high-end product series are often the main source of profit for AB InBev.

In particular, these products are usually hard to come by, and now that AB InBev's supply base has seen a sharp drop in production, it is quite cruel - AB InBev will have to find a global source of hops.

Britto is also a ruthless man who is decisive in killing, and he quickly made a decision: "We will immediately stop supplying hops to all hop supply bases in the world, and all hops must be allocated to AB InBev;

The purchasing manager hesitated: "In this case, it may affect our relationship with many of the beer producers we work with......

As mentioned earlier, it is common to sign long-term contracts to buy hops, such as signing a one-time contract for several years. AB InBev wants to make up for its own supply by snapping up, which will certainly hurt the beer producers who have signed the contract.

Of course, AB InBev undoubtedly has more weight when it comes to acquiring hops than those independent brewers. It's just that in this way, AB InBev's "popularity" in the industry may not be much better. This is quite detrimental to AB InBev's global M&A strategy - the "popularity" is poor, and people who want to merge and acquire in the future will not agree.

But now, he has to make sure he produces his own products – for the brewery, it is a painful thing to run out of hops, and it is very likely to cause the product to be taken off the production line or the new process to be aborted, which is a very serious blow to the beer brand.

In addition, with the entire industry facing a shortage of raw materials, AB InBev may also be able to further reduce the market share of competitors.

Brito even commanded, "Do as I say." At the same time, specialty hops destined for Asia, especially South Korea, will be shipped back to the United States for storage and distributed within North America for use ......"

The purchasing manager was stunned: "This ...... Won't it affect the layout of the Asian market?"

Brito's eyes twitched: "...... It's already affected!"

......