The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Agency (NASS) produces annual reports on individual commodities. One of the commodities they track is hops, an aromatic flower used most commonly in the brewing of beer.

The market size presented today is the size of the stock of hops held by hops dealers, hops growers and beer brewers as of March 1, 2011. The graph is a presentation of hops stocks in the United States over a 20-year period and shows how recent stockpiles are at record highs. High stockpiles are a sign of a sluggish market and pressure on pricing, something that has not been seen in most agricultural commodity markets in the last few years.

Geographic reference: United States
Year: 2011
Market size: 109 million pounds
Source: “Hop Stocks,” March 2011, an annual report which is available online here. Unlike most graphs we present on this blog, we did not produce this one. It comes directly from the USDA report.
Original Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, NASS
Posted on August 1, 2011