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decided to convene the first International Conference of Members of German Agriculture Community on an friendly excursion
in a hop town, Žatec, approx. 1920
Hop Growers in Žatec on the 1 of September 1911. The
st
aim of the meeting was to create a strong organisation
amongst hop growers throughout regions and countries,
a long-term creation of reliable statistics on areas and
harvests of hops, and to create a "Hop Corporations
Centre of Central Europe," with a view to further expand
production areas, including overseas.

This conference and its conclusions encouraged further
developments in hop growing in Europe. Still, in 1913 the
promising developments were hampered by the exit of
the German Association of Hop Growers and the shortly
later event of the beginning of World War I. After the
World War I, the so-called Central European Hop Office
was established in 1926 in connection with the idea of the
Hop Corporations Centre of Central Europe. Its activities
were developed almost until the World War II, and its
activities in the following period were followed by the
European Hop Growers’ Convention, which was followed
by the modern International Hop Growers’ Convention
(I.H.G.C.).

In his publication Green Gold in 2017, researcher and In contrast, however, advantageous to hop growing in
historian Vojtěch Pojar summarised the position of Saaz Žatec were great supplies of hops stored and unsold
hops as follows: "The rise of Czech hop growing, at the during the World War I, which could be quickly used in the
expense of German and Belgian, was particularly evident post-war market. The trade was based on the traditional
at the beginning of the 20 century. In Bohemia, hops quality, goodwill, and popularity of Saaz hops.
th
were grown on 14,715 ha in 1910 Czech hops had, in
addition to their quality, another significant advantage. Gradually, the hop organisations were renewed, new basic 127
It was extremely suitable for the production of bottom- structures to run the new state were established, and the
fermented beer, especially Pilsner type lager. In 1884, activities of the professional hop growing institutions
99 % of our beer was already produced by the bottom went back to normal. A new generation of hop growers
fermentation process. In Germany, this process took entered the cultivation and processing industry.
place with a certain delay before the World War I. The
change in brewing technology thus made Bohemia the The Czech and German section of the Hop Growing Union
fourth-largest centre of world hop growing in terms of in Žatec, along with state administration, focused on the
hop area after the turn of the century." preparation of a law concerning obligatory hop marking.

CZECH HOP GROWING AND HOP GROWING IN ŽATEC
FROM 1918 TO 1945
After the World War I and the disintegration of
Austro-Hungaria, leading to the establishment of the
Czechoslovak Republic, the initial situation for Czech hop
growing was not simple. The area of the hop fields was
significantly reduced during the war period. The 15,378
ha of hop fields in Bohemia in 1913 were reduced to only
8,540 ha at the end of the war.

The Žatec region focused on the renewal of its hop
industry after the establishment of Czechoslovakia.
However, an experienced workforce was scarce and the
soil in the hop fields exhausted by the lack of farmyard
manure, caused by a reduction in the number of cattle.
Due to the insufficient workforce, the cultivation of the
hop fields was neglected, and the hop constructions were
not maintained. The war took its toll on the hop growing
organisations as well, including the hop trade.
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57 Congress of modern I.H.G.C. in Slovenia, Lubljana, 2019