European challenge for English hops

by Michael Griffin

Hop farming is part of the English rural
tradition, but it's not protected from
change. Michael Griffin looks at the
history of the hop industry and the
effects of market forces

and technology upon it

As PARISIANS FLEE the city in August. so for
generations of Londoners. September used
to signal an exodus to the hop pickings of
Sussex and the Kentish Weald.

There. the casual picker could earn
enough money filling bushel baskets to keep
the family in food and fresh air for a month.
As the harvest progressed. relatives and
neighbours would pop down to take a turn at
the picking crib. a bin suspended between
two trestles. while their children played
between the hop bines or raided the apple
orchards. The work was exhausting and the
pay minimal. but the plantations wore a
holiday air.

Among the villages of the Weald and the
West Country. the brick hop kiln is as solid
an emblem of the landscapes maturity and
stability as the half-timbered house or the
village steeple. The hopyards stretch away
like gigantic vineyards. criss-crossed with
wires. which are supported on stout larch
poles. When the wind blows. the wirework
trembles. A single faulty pole could bring
the whole network of cable and its cargo of
hops crashing to the ground.

An 18th century print (above) gives a romanticized impression of hop picking, not quite the reality of early this century when an army of London families
spent September picking hops in the Kentish Weald and Sussex. Originally hops were picked from poles and then cleaned in canvas cribs (left). The poles
were later replaced by wires (right). The hops are now picked by machine and are cleaned on a conveyor belt in the farm's drying plant

564 THE GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE

tional opportunities. Thus by 1976. whereas
eight and nine per cent of the populations of
Sydney and Melbourne were born in the UK
and Ireland the percentages for Adelaide
and Perth were 15 and over 17 respectively.

In Adelaide. the impact of the British on
particular areas was profound. and this was
because of the activities of the South
Australian Housing Trust. In Adelaide. the
Trust did not provide accommodation solely
for the disadvantaged as did the public
Housing Commissions in the eastern states.
but was directly involved in the suburban
planning process. From 1958 the Trust. in
association with the State Immigration
Office participated in three migration
schemes devised mainly for British and Irish
settlers. The House Purchase Scheme. which
was administered from a London office.
selected British applicants with some capital
and good prospects for employment. The
Housing Trust undertook to offer a selection
of houses to new arrivals. Between 1958-
1971. some 3.500 British families were
settled in north east Adelaide. and near Port
Noarlunga in the south west.

Assistance with accommodation was also
offered by the Housing Trust through two
other schemes: Personal and Group
Nomination. Personal Nominations involved
nomination by a friend and relative (as with
other immigrants) while Group Nominations
involved the employer nominating an
employee with a particular skill.

By 1976 there were 145.000 British and
Irish-born in Adelaide. Strong residential
clustering resulted from resettlement
policies; public housing was itself spatially
concentrated. In the areas of highest British
concentration — Elizabeth North. Para Vista.
Salisbury. and Modbury Heights in the north
east. and Noarlunga and Morphett Vale in
the south. between 45-70 per cent of the
population was born in the United Kingdom
and Ireland. An additional attraction to
British immigrants was that in Australia.

RESIDENTIAL

CONCENTRATIONS 

OF ADELAIDE IN 1976 //

EUK & keland, 30-49 per cent
Greek born. over 15 per cent
Polish born. over 10 per cent
[II] Italian born. over 10 per cent

public housing could be bought by tenants.
something prohibited in Britain until as
recently as 1980.

Communal organizations were established
b_v the British on a considerable scale in
Elizabeth. often for people from specific
regions of Britain: the Merseyside Associa-
tion. the Elizabeth Society of Yorkshire-
men. the Welsh Society of Elizabeth. the
Cornish Association of South Australia. the
Cambrian Society. the Ulster Society. the
British Australian Association. the
Elizabeth John Bull Association. the New
Settlers Club. the Northdowns Residents
Association and the British Workingmans
Club.

The next largest immigrant population
was the Italians. some 350.000 of whom have
migrated to Australia since the Second
World War. The Italian populations in
individual cities were large. over 105.000 in
metropolitan Melbourne. 70.000 in metro-
politan Sydney and 30.000 in Adelaide.
Including children born in Australia. there
were almost 200.000 persons of Italian origin
in metropolitan Melbourne in 1976.

Strong concentrations formed in the inner
suburbs: over 12.000 in Sydney‘s Leichhardt
and the adjacent Local Government Areas
(LGAs) of Ashfield. Marrickville. and
Drummoyne. and over 215.000 in Mel-
bourne's inner northern LGA of Brunswick
and the adjacent LGAs of Coburg. Essen-
don and Broadmeadows.

The Greek concentrations were of
comparable size (although the total Greek
populations in the cities were less than the
Italian) because the relative concentration of
the Greeks was greater than the Italian.

It is tempting to see the residential
concentrations as being manifestations of
the urban social class system: since dis-
proportionate numbers of the Greeks.
Italians. Yugoslavs and Lebanese were in
low income jobs. they concentrated in low
rent housing. However. residential concen-
trations formed in separate parts of the
working-class districts. The primary factor in
the formation of these specific concen-
trations was kinship. Indeed the main Greek
and Italian concentrations began in the
1920s and 1930s and the stronger post-war
migrations expanded the kin networks of the
earlier settlements on the basis of village-of-
origin groupings. These chain migrations
were from different source regions to
particular cities in Australia. For example
the main Calabrian migrations to the market
garden periphery of Sydney were from
Opido and Melecucca whereas the Calabrian
settlers in Adelaide originated near
Taurianova, Casilonia and Caulonia. Mean-
while. proportionately more from eastern
Sicily settled in Sydney’s inner suburbs and
more from Viggiano and adjacent areas of
Basilicata settled in Melbourne's inner
northern suburbs.

In the larger residential concentrations. a
wide range of ethnic institutional, associa-
tional, and business services evolved. The
ethnic businesses — delicatessens. land
agents. haberdasheries. bakeries, espresso
bars and the like — allowed traditional diets.
preferences, and transactions in the native

language. Near a key intersectionin Leich-
hardt in Sydney. there were over 170 Italian
businesses and institutions in 1976: in
Brunswick. Melbourne. over 200 on Sydney
Road: in Carlton. over 100. also in
Melbourne. Comparable developments
occurred in Greek concentration areas. and
more recently in areas of Yugoslav and
Lebanese concentration in Sydney. albeit on
a smaller scale. Such trends took place in
old string-street shopping developments
where shops could be leased cheaply.

Chain migration was an important
influence on migration and residential
concentration Religion was also influential.
especially where groups set up their own
institutions. as was the case with the Greeks.
Macedonians. Serbians. Russians.
Bulgarians. German Lutherans. Armenians.
Coptic Christians from Egypt. the
Maronites. Melkites. Antiochan Orthodox.
and Druze from the Lebanon. the Assyrians
from the Middle East. Moslems from
Lebanon and Turkey. Jewish settlers from
Europe. and Dutch Reformed Church
members.

The most visible influence of religion has
been with the Greeks: in Sydney in 1980
there were 26 Greek Orthodox churches.
most of which were associated with res’
dential concentrations. although an increa-,
ing number were locating in affluent suburbs
as Greeks suburbanized. The Orthodox
churches gave cohesion to ethnic concentra-
tions as did the Maronite. Melkite and
Moslem institutions in the Lebanese concen-
trations. Indeed in Sydney. the Maronites
were the main component of the old inner
city Redfern concentration: the Moslems.
were the main element in the Lakemba
settlement. and the Maronites and Orthodox
Lebanese Christians were dominant in
Punchbowl. In all cases where there were
ethnic churches. there was some residential
concentration. as for example the more than
5.700 Dutch on the south eastern fringe of
Melbourne. most of whom had some affilia-
tion with the Reformed Church of Australia.

Ethnic settlement in Australian cities is
complex. and has involved the interplay of
economic. social. cultural and migrational
forces. Large ethnic concentrations have
formed. but much residential mobility hz
taken place so that by the 1976 census. the~
majority of all ethnic groups. even the most
‘segregated resided outside ethnic concen-
trations. The ghetto model is not applicable
to the concentrations even where they have
been associated with low rent neighbour-
hoods. in part because they have also been
linked to home ownership. and also because
many second generation persons have been
socially mobile. This is not to say that there
have not been problems with those immi-
grant children of lesser ability, and with
unemployment among Lebanese and
Turkish youth. and also Greek and Yugoslav
household heads and womenfolk. Structural
change in manufacturing has caused
problems for some immigrants.

Dr Ian Burnley is senior lecturer in the
School of Geography at the University of
New South Wales

THE GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE 563

Growing hops is a secret skill, enveloped
in a rich tradition that would keep an
historian busy for years. Farmers. for their
part. are growers because their grandfathers
were. and many confess to an obscure sense
of loss — unusual among farmers '— when the
last bine is cut and the hopyard left looking
empty and ransacked.

Hops start to produce shoots in late March
when they are trained to grow clockwise up
strings fixed with books into the loamy soil.
By the end of July they have come into burr
(blossom) and three weeks later green
seeded cones appear. In September the hops
hang in handfuls as bright and plentiful as
grapes. At the base of the feathery petals
lurks a gummy, sulphurous pollen. which is
what the brewer uses. '

The brewer requires hops for a variety of
reasons, other than their obvious aromatic
qualities. Soft resins within the flower give
the characteristic bitterness of English beer,
but they also have a bacteriostatic effect
which prolongs its storage life. Hop tannins
also help in clarifying the beer during brew-
ing. The efficiency of a particular variety of
hop, and there are many. is defined in terms
of its alpha acid content — a measure of the
bittering value of hops. A high alpha hop
will produce more beer than a low alpha one

id, in recent years. brewers have increased
nreir demand for the former. They have
good bittering qualities but more
importantly, represent a considerable cost
saving as fewer are required.

A century ago hops covered more than
11.700 hectares of English farmland and in
1908 thousands of pickers and growers con-
verged on Trafalgar Square to protest the
poor price being offered for English hops.
Today a similar gathering would constitute a
lobby for an endangered species, hardly a
demonstration. The area under hops has
fallen drastically to 6000 hectares and barely
400 growers are left in the country. As for
the pickers, their services and their summer
holidays became obsolete in the Fifties when
growers bought elaborate picking machines.
While these figures seem to indicate an
industry in rapid decline, it is only half the
picture. As a result of the introduction of
higher yielding varieties, these 6000 hectares
actually produce nearly double the alpha

.d of 50 years ago and roughly the same

"amount of beer. The traditional English

hops. Fuggles and Golding, have largely
disappeared from the South East, after a
severe outbreak of wilt, an incurable hop
disease. They have been replaced by the
more recent breeds, Target, Challenger. and
Northdown, which combine high alpha with
a degree of wilt resistance. No, if there were
to be a replay of the Trafalgar Square rally
tomorrow, it would most likely be thronged
with brewers. What threatens the English
hop industry in the 1980s is that it has ceased
to be competitive in both international and
domestic markets.

The production of hops in England is
controlled by the Hop Marketing Board
(HMB), a producers’ society and the first of
the new boards to be set up under the
Agricultural Marketing Act, 1931. No hops
may be sold except through the board. which

 

On a large brewery—owned hop farm in Hereford picking goes on 24 hours a day with a new machine
(above) which clips the bines from the wires while people in the cart tug the bines from thewires.
(Below) the higher the alpha acid content of a hop the more beer that it can flavour; a technician at the

Ni’

also sets quotas for individual farmers based
on its forward sales policy. A producer
consigning hops in excess of his quota has no
guarantee of payment, unless they are
subsequently sold on the ‘spot market’. The
Board sells the bulk of its crop four years in
advance in an efort to stabilize an industry
that has suffered from wild fluctuations in
production and demand in the past. The
HMB also undertakes measurement of the
alpha acid and moisture content of the crop
by making tests on a random selection of the
‘pockets’ of hops in their vast warehouses.
Some farms are owned entirely by
breweries or have specific contracts to
supply them. When Allied Breweries’ new
farm in Leominster. Herefordshire, comes
into full operation in 1984, this will be able
to supply about 40 per cent of the company’s
entire requirement. Few breweries can
ever hope to fulfil their total needs. Con-
sequently, a large degree of cooperation

Hop Research Department of Wye College at Ashford in Kent does an alpha acid analysis

has developed between the growers —
represented by the board — and the brewers.
Both contribute finance to the Hop
Research Department at Wye College in
Kent, where some of the most dramatic
strides in breeding and disease control have
taken place. There has been an unwritten
agreement between board and brewer that it
was in the brewer’s interest to continue
supporting a domestic hop industry, rather
than set themselves at the mercy of German
or Yugoslavian growers, having driven their
own farmers out of business. The brewers
never agreed to underwrite hop production
however, and the decline in the numbers of
growers and the increased planting of high
alpha hops underlines how competitive the
industry has had to become. Mr G. C. Hall
Production Manager at the HMB summed
up the quandary for hop growers: ‘There
were fears, and very real fears, that if you
increase the alpha acid content of hops and

THE GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE 565

increase the yield per acre. then your market
is going to contract. As opposed to that. we
were being told by English brewers. that if
you don't produces high alpha hops. there
are bags of Northern Brewer in Europe
which we will want to buy. because we want
high alpha at a price that's economical. We

were over a barrel. Either you lose your
home market because youre not producing
what your customer wants. or you lose some
of your home market. because you‘re

producing what he does want‘.

Mr Hall is justified in speaking in the
singular because few other customers are
interested in English hops because they are
‘seeded‘ — the fruit has been fertilized and
contains seeds. Most other countries grow
unpollinated or seedless hops and.
generally. world trade is in this kind. The
immediate post-war years saw a decline in
exports which became sharper in the 19705
as production expanded in Germany and

America. Our once assured markets in the»
former colonies looked elsewhere and only
Nigeria continues to be a customer of any
weight. Trials have proved that there is no
difference between the two kinds of hops
when it comes to brewing either lager or
bitter. but consumer resistance is en-
trenched. European masterbrewers also
claim the seeds clog up the drains. Further-
more. with a large number of European
brands being made here under licence. even

Owing to the uncertainty of the market and high
costs of cultivation (wirework costs more than
£1000 per hectare), hopyards are generally small.
In a 4 ha privately-owned Hereford yard (above)
hop bines have curled three—quarters of the way
up the wires by mid—June. During the September
harvest a picking machine (right) moves down the
rows as the person in the ‘crows nest’ cuts the
bine where it joins the overhead wire. Women on
the cart (left) wind the bines around metal pillars
for ease of handling

British brewers have to follow the recipes
and buy seedless hops.

More significantly. in 1981 the Hop
Marketing Board in selling crops in advance
had increased the price of its 1984 crop by 30
per cent and even regular buyers were
shying away from committing themselves. at
a time of falling beer sales and uncertain
futures. Small English brewers. who had
continued to buy traditional Fuggles and

‘oldings hops for their greater aroma.
.ound that the same were available from
Yugoslavia. delivered and duty paid. for £75
per zentner (50kg) less than they cost in
Kent. Moreover. while choicest English
Goldings from 1984 were being offered at
£210 per zentner. the German merchants
were able to sell their 1990 crop without
breaking the £200 per zentner barrier. Many
buyers felt the Hop Marketing Board had
gone too far this time and some growers
worried that the new prices would drive
customers into the arms of the Germans.
The Board. however. justified its increase by
stating that if English hop growers were even
to survive into the next decade. something
had to be done about the outdated equip-
ment on which they had relied for the past
thirty years. The picking machine with its
complicated array of teasers. flails and tracks
costs well in excess of 50.000. and most
machines need major overhauls or replace-

THE GEOGRAPHlCAL MAGAZINE 567

The bines are fed into a track conveyor at the brewery farm (above) while the waste from the plant is blown out to a storage area outside, from where it is
taken to be used as compost for the next crop. The bines then pass between pairs of rotors which have tines that tease off the hop cones together with
leaves and shoots (below left). A conveyor belt then carries the hop cones past cleaners (below right) who pick out any remaining waste

\,

I
\
.4

5

\

Owing to the uncertainty of the market and high
costs of cultivation (wirework costs more than
£1000 per hectare), hopyard,s are generally small.
In a 4 ha privately—owned Hereford yard (above)
hop bines have curled three-quarters of the way
up the wires by mid-June. During the September
harvest a picking machine (right) moves down the
rows as the person in the ‘crows nest’ cuts the
bine where it joins the overhead wire. Women on
the cart (left) wind the bines around metal pillars
for ease of handling

British brewers have to follow the recipes
and buy seedless hops.

More significantly. in 1981 the I-lop
Marketing Board in selling crops in advance
had increased the price of its 1984 crop by 30
per cent and even regular buyers were
shying away from committing themselves. at
a time of falling beer sales and uncertain
futures. Small. English brewers. who had
continued to buy traditional Fuggles and

‘oldings hops for their greater aroma.
.ound that the same were available from
Yugoslavia. delivered and duty paid. for £75
per zentner (50kg) less than they cost in
Kent. Moreover. while choicest English
Goldings from 1984 were being offered at
£210 per zentner. the German merchants
were able to sell their 1990 crop without
breaking the £200 per zentner barrier. Many
buyers felt the Hop Marketing Board had
gone too far this time and some growers
worried that the new prices would drive
customers into the arms of the Germans.
The Board. however. justified its increase by
stating that if English hop growers were even
to survive into the next decade. something
had to be done about the outdated equip-
ment on which they had relied for the past
thirty years. The picking machine with its
complicated array of teasers. flails and tracks
costs well in excess of £50.000. and most
machines need major overhauls or replace-

THE GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE 567

The cleaned hops move on by conveyor belt to a
dryer (top right) which takes six hours to dry the
hops at 60°C. The plant operates 24 hours a day

inent. Moreover, with wirework for the
hop-yards costing as much as £2000 an acre
to install, it was little wonder that no new
private grower had set up in the last 30

years. Capital was urgently needed to
prevent a decline in efficiency.

All this strikes a grim note indeed for what
seems a typically English kind of husbandry.
The English grower is producing a hop. for
which no one has much need and charging
the earth for it. Consequently. they are
seriously disadvantaged in the export market
place. With a dwindling share of inter-
national trade and what amounts to an
increasingly fragile hold upon its one
remaining captive market. life for the
country’s remaining 374 growers looks like
becoming more cut-throat. What was
previously sold abroad could be the measure
of what is produced in future and quotas will
have to be adjusted to reflect the declining
demand. There will be a further fall in the
number of growers as competition whittles
away marginal producers. forcing them to
grub out their hops. British brewers
maintain that they will continue to support a
domestic industry so long as the prices
remain ‘reasonably' competitive. but none
as yet is prepared to say what defines
reasonable. The growers clearly sailed too
close to the wind with their 1984 prices. With
regular customers still reluctant to place
orders and barely 50 per cent of the crop
sold. the Hop Marketing Board changed its
tack and reduced its price rise by half. Sales
have begun to pick up again. but those
brewers who had already bought at the first
price are now angry that they did. for they
can expect no refund for their display of
loyalty.

But that is not the end of the story.
Though entry to the EEC has infiicted few of
the drastic changes that have crippled the
apple industry. the HMB as a compulsory
group, runs counter to the letter of the

Treaty of Rome. A Bill. currently at the
committee stage in the House of Commons.
will wind up the board and charter a Hop
Society to which membership will be
voluntary. Members will be free to leave
after three years when their quotas have
been fulfilled. Few are expected to make the
break for it has been a long 50 years since
any grower in England has had to handle his
own marketing and quality control.

The English hop industry is clearly at a
crossroads and its survival into the 19905 a
matter of conjecture. The relationship
between brewer and the Hop Marketing
Board — a delicate balance of self-interest at
the best of times — has been strained by the
price increases and the boards realization
that the future of its growers is at risk.
Although hops make up barely 5 per cent of
the total cost of brewing. hop buyers within
the major breweries are looking for cuts. It
is possible that brewers may try to wean
private growers away from the new society
and initiate special contracts in an attempt to
avoid the expense of the administration.
Alternatively. they might buy their own hop
farms. Another possibility. but still an
extremely remote one. is that more growers
will replant with seedless hops in order to
give them a greater advantage in the inter-
national market. The words of a Kentish
song of 1759. when the French were
preparing their invasion fleet at Le Havre
finds a pertinent echo in the l980s though
the competition is now different!

‘Whats he that presides at the Court of
Versailles

To the planter that sits on his bench’?

Hurrah for your hops. your stout. beer
and good ales.

Down with French wines and down with
the French.‘

Michael Griffin is a freelance writer

THE GEOGRAPHICAL MAGAZINE 569