Production Regions

Spalt Production Region

The Franconian region around the town of Spalt is the German hop-growing region exceedingly rich in tradition. As early as the Middle Ages the Spalt hops enjoyed an outstanding reputation. At the middle of the 15th century a flourishing hop trade started up and in 1538 the town of Spalt was awarded the first hop seal in the world to protect its hops which at that time were already sought-after all over Europe. Until the beginning of the 20th century Spalt together with the other Franconican hop-growing regions was at the top of the German hop production. Nowadays Spalt with a structure of small farms is the second smallest hop region in Germany, but has been able to maintain its world status; as it enjoys low rainfall, many hours of sunshine and very deep rich soils the best quality aroma and high-aroma varieties are produced here in controlled, integrated production.

	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Acreage in ha	388	384	387	387	376	366
Total crop in tons	504	588	642	610	641	543
Average yield in tons/ha	1,30	1,53	1,66	1,58	1,70	1,76
Proportion of total German crop in %	1,77	1,83	1,62	1,95	1,87	1,69

	Total crop in tons
Principal varieties	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Spalter	96	106	116	92	121	97
Hallertauer	134	144	149	118	125	95
Spalter Select	165	221	218	219	194	224

Source: EU reports, HVG, Mehop

	Acreage in ha
Principal varieties	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Spalter	87	91	90	81	91
Hallertauer	108	113	106	85	80
Spalter Select	110	113	106	103	104

Source: EU reports, HVG, Mehop