Clayton Hops, one of New Zealand’s leading hop growers, has just dropped their 2025 hop harvest report.
Following on the heels of NZ Hops Ltd’s report the other week, this one again highlights a significant reduction in hop production in line with global trends.
Clayton Hops, which accounts for about 40% of the annual NZ harvest, took a birds-eye view of the industry as a whole, combining their data with that of NZ Hops’ to get a full picture.
“This year will be remembered as a year in which significant hop garden acreage was idled throughout the Tasman region,” said Brian Clayton, CEO of Clayton Hops. He noted that the idling, along with drastic aroma hop acreage reductions in other parts of the world, such as the US and Australia, is part of a trend that will rebalance the aroma hop market.
New Zealand-wide hop production is estimated to be down 23% since 2023, with Motueka, Nectaron, and Nelson Sauvin the main hops impacted.
The report says that the aroma hop market has been challenging for the past 2-3 years due to global oversupply and Covid-related inventory build-up.
Despite the production decline, Clayton Hops says there’s increased international interest in New Zealand hop products, with record numbers of visitors to New Zealand this season. The company finished processing all its new season T90 hop pellets by April 7, which was super-fast thanks to a new processing facility.
In terms of sensory observations, this year’s harvest is considered a “true to type” year, with consistent ranges of sensory attributes within each variety.
Like NZ Hops Ltd, Clayton Hops is working with Plant & Food Research on its hop development programme and has a potential new commercial variety that’s been dubbed CIP-014.
“It has been really well received by brewers here and abroad, the thiol levels are off the charts,” they said.
The full report is here:
CY25-Harvest-Report-A4-new-PDF