Dollar Reaches Parity...

[argon]

Nasty !

OT but ... In simple terms for non economic types, it's the demand of Australian minerals that's making the dollar so high, hurting Australian agriculture, making our food exports more expensive abroad. In other words, the Liberals and the Nationals are shitting themselves - which of their core constituents do they want to dish out on most ! Don't hear much about it from Tony Abbott and his Coalition .. do we ??

Back to thread - you want to take advantage of the dollar parity, go for it and import your hops. Please though, don't dish out on local resellers who have to cover things such as finance credit to prepay for stock they won't get a return on for several months, large freight bills, cold storage costs, rent, staff wages and on costs and bugger me, try to make a profit so they can accomodate, feed and clothe their families. Don't whinge about local suppliers being too expensive unless you understand their situation. Simplistic answers to complicated problems are fine for beer talk but don't work in practice.

Wouldn't OS suppliers also have overheads??

 

[Wolfy]

I don't understand the illogical, fanatical dedication people have towards a LHBS

My fanaticism is such that I'll drive for an hour - to visit a site sponsor - and avoid my LHBS.
But as a consumer price is important, so if the goods are available elsewhere at a much cheaper price then that's where I will shop.

I find that the postage costs from the USA to be stupidly-expensive, and that shipping from the UK is much more resonable, however it seems their consumer-hop-market is similar to ours, so mostly looking at hardware and other things from there.

 

[schooey]

- you want to take advantage of the dollar parity, go for it and import your hops. Please though, don't dish out on local resellers who have to cover things such as finance credit to prepay for stock they won't get a return on for several months, large freight bills, cold storage costs, rent, staff wages and on costs and bugger me, try to make a profit so they can accomodate, feed and clothe their families. Don't whinge about local suppliers being too expensive unless you understand their situation. Simplistic answers to complicated problems are fine for beer talk but don't work in practice.

... and also don't whine when there is no longer a LHBS near you that you can duck into to grab a few things on your way home from work, or no sponsors for beer comps, festivals yatter yatter...

 

[geoffi]

Wouldn't OS suppliers also have overheads??

Beat me to it.

It would be unreasonable to expect Australian prices to be as low as OS. But prices not just 30, 40, even 50% higher, but several times those available to American consumers? There is something seriously wrong with this picture.

I want to support local firms. I would happily pay a reasonable premium to do so. But really, this is ridiculous.

Happily I now have seven hop plants on the go, so hopefully this should soon become academic for me.

 

[Fatgodzilla]

Wouldn't OS suppliers also have overheads??

Simplistic answers to complicated problems are fine for beer talk but don't work in practice.

Hop grower in the USA. Grows hops. Cheap agricultural labour. Packs and posts.

Australian retailer. Pays cash up front for hops (or borrows of bank and pays interest). Customs duty. Freight from port (on top of freight to Australia). Cold storage for up to one tonne of hops. Re-package hops into containers suitable for end user - us. Must pay staff to re-package. Needs to pay rental on shop too.

Yes, of course OS suppliers have overheads. They pass those costs onto our local blokes in their prices. Our local blokes have overheads. They pass those costs onto us.

Not economic myth, just a simple explanation of the business cycle.

But prices not just 30, 40, even 50% higher, but several times those available to American consumers

yes, but the USA have as many homebrewers it seems than we have Australians. Market forces can keep costs dow. But make sure you are not comparing the cost of a 90g satchel sold by a LHBS to the imported price of one kg of the stuff in your comments. Apples and oranges.

Hear in endeth the lesson. Starking to sound narky, so time to go offer my services to paying customers. :beerbang:

 

[argon]

Hop grower in the USA....

Australian retailer....

ok, fair comparison

 

[Nick JD]

Commerce is international. If you can't lower your prices to compete with international retailers, then your business model is flawed.

The idea that we as Aussie consumers are required to "support" Aussie retailers is absurd.

It's 2010 - there's an internet and a visa card.

The fact that a pound of PoR and a pound of Amarillio cost pretty much the same from an Aussie retailer makes me wonder why the wholesale (and shipping) differential isn't being passed on to the customer. Sure, the USA market is huge enabling lower prices, but how much PoR is grown in Oz per year?

 

[bradsbrew]

It's 2010 - there's an internet and a visa card.

Which is not as convenient as a good local and can not give you face to face experienced information. Also does not give support to local brew clubs and events.

Pretty sure the minimum wage and benefits are alot better here than most other countries.

Having said that I may look into some imports but the money I save will be spent at the LHBS as a bonus :beer:

Brad

 

[Ross]

.......but how much PoR is grown in Oz per year?

Obviously not enough as we couldn't get any allocation this year

Cheers Ross

Edit: Some people have very short memories - 18 months ago we were selling USA hops back to the States & still sell UK hops into Europe.
Trading conditions are changing all the time.


cheers Ross

 

[Nick JD]

Which is not as convenient as a good local and can not give you face to face experienced information. Also does not give support to local brew clubs and events.

My LHBS is not very local. It's in another city. I use the internet and a visa to shop with them.

 

[Nick JD]

Obviously not enough as we couldn\'t get any allocation this year

Cheers Ross

That sucks because there must have been more profit in the local grown stuff. I've got heaps of 2009 POR in my freezer if you run out - I'll sell it to you at only a small profit. :lol: I only paid $26 a kg, so at $9 per 90g you can turn $26 into $100!

And I paid retail.

 

[bum]

I'm sure his overheads are a little higher than yours, Nick. Why must you deliberately misrepresent everything and everyone?

 

[Bribie G]

As those of us growing our own hops have come to realise ( my single little cluster plant is teaching me this) you can't just whack a few thousand rhizomes in the ground and Bingo, three months later you can be carting truckloads of product off the farm. More like a 3 year lead time.
In the case of, say, broccoli you can do that (seedlings not rhizomes) but hops aint broc.

As far as POR goes, Ross and other retailers have clearly been caught in a bit of a market pinch, recent drought no doubt a contributor.

 

[Nick JD]

I'm sure his overheads are a little higher than yours, Nick. Why must you deliberately misrepresent everything and everyone?

All I'm saying is there's a 300% profit margin buying POR in 1kg lots.

I shudder to think what the margins are on small-packet hops when bought in bulk direct.

I'm not misrepresenting anyone - there are people wondering why hops are so expensive in Australia. There are quite a few businesses that thrive on turning a $20 wholesale cost into a $100 retail price. If that doesn't cover your overheads you're drinking all the profits.

 

[Leigh]

All I'm saying is there's a 300% profit margin buying POR in 1kg lots.

If that's the case, are you trying to convince everybody that there is absolutely no cost in bags, vacuum sealer, labels, labour, storage etc etc etc

 

[haysie]

Going short at 9850 on the US/AUS dollar
With all the money I make from the downturn in the dollar I can still buy my hops from Craftbrewer or G&G. Afterall being such a massive brewery that I am, the savings must be phenomenal :lol:

 

[MarkBastard]

At the end of the day the buyer votes with their money. If all the businesses we are talking about are running and making money then there's no problem. The only problem is if one company tries to unfairly disallow another company from selling, or tries to get them to increase their prices etc.

Not saying it's ever happened, just saying we have it good right now because we have options, so there's not too much to complain about.

 

[brad05]

If that's the case, are you trying to convince everybody that there is absolutely no cost in bags, vacuum sealer, labels, labour, storage etc etc etc

I think anyone who understands the cost of doing business in Australia would realise that LHBS are not rubbing their hands together like Mr Burns and laughing at the stupidity of consumers. As stated previously, the cost of labour and other overheads are quite high plus they are also at the end of a supply chain. The fact that they also insulate the fluctuations in the Australian dollar also contribute. I agree in taking advantage of the current AUD, but remember you also need to support the local otherwise they won't be there when you need them.

 

[tcraig20]

it's the demand of Australian minerals that's making the dollar so high, hurting Australian agriculture, making our food exports more expensive abroad.

OT again, that's partly the case. Its also partly a lack of demand for foreign currencies (most especially the USD, but also the pound and euro) that is driving up the dollar. The US Fed in particular have created an astronomical amount of money in the last couple of years. As supply increases, and demand stagnates, prices fall. Interestingly, we are pretty well back where we were at the top in 2008 with the other commdollars (NZ, CAD). While the higher dollar might hinder our farmers, it is also important to remember that most soft commodities are well above their historic averages - for example soy futures are trading around US$1000, while back in 2001 it was trading at about US $500. Factoring in the currency differences, prices are much the same in Australian dollars. Wheat has gone from about $300 to $700 in the same period, etc. While its easy to get fixated on hard commodities, there is a lot of demand out there for the softs, and this also has an effect on our currency.

Back on topic, those hops are looking mighty tempting, I just wish they had some warrior.

 

[Nick JD]

...the savings must be phenomenal :lol:

Let's work them out. I could pay $100 for 1kg, or I could pay $50.

When I run the numbers though Beersmith and SWMBO's "if you buy that I'm buying curtains" accounting software I get a savings of $50.

Sometimes proving savings is as good as making money appear from nowhere when the Minsiter of Finance has fangs.

If you buy 1kg of POR for $35 and sell half of it for $35 ... you get the kittenskins, for nothing. NOTHING I TELL YOU!

I love economics. I love POR in beer - it tastes like capitalism.