Supply Chain

Global hop acreage grew +0.8% to 62,886 hectares (nearly 155,395 acres) in 2021, increasing for the eighth consecutive year, global hop supplier BarthHaas reported Monday.

Ready-to-drink canned cocktails (RTDs) will continue to grow, and supply chain constraints will persist for at least the next six months, executives from alcohol importer MHW predicted Wednesday during a webinar.

Headwinds have converged to create an unfavorable environment for craft breweries seeking to package their beer in aluminum cans, which now make up about 60% of independent craft beer packaged volume, according to the Brewers Association (BA), a trade group representing the nation’s small and independent brewers. With 2021 coming to a close, Brewbound spoke leaders at American Canning, WildPack Beverages, and DWS Printing gauge how they are navigating these currents.

Beverage producers have faced an unending onslaught of supply chain challenges in 2021. With three months left in the year, how should breweries and beverage companies be planning for 2022? The leadership team from Agrowgate, a firm focused on helping mid-sized beverage companies navigate procurement and supply chain issues, joins Brewbound Frontlines to discuss the issues now facing beverage makers and strategies for working through them.

As the beverage industry faces a painful crunch on aluminum can supply, another manufacturer announced last week that it is working to expand production. Crown Holdings said Friday that it has selected Mesquite, Nevada as the location of a new aluminum can manufacturing facility.

Once tariffs are imposed, they’re difficult to repeal. That was one of the takeaways from a pre-recorded interview between Beer Institute president and CEO Jim McGreevy and Wendy Cutler, vice president and managing director for Washington, D.C.-based think tank the Asia Society Policy Institute.

A new aluminum can making and filling production facility is slated to begin operations in Salt Lake City during the fourth quarter of 2021. Co-packing facility Vobev will launch with a focus on the popular slim (sleek) can production of 12 oz. (355 mL) and 8.4 oz. (250 mL) in a beverage industry crunched by demand and shortages of aluminum receptacle.