Summary
Have you just set up your hop garden? Do you grow, harvest, prepare or process hops and want to market them? In Europe, certification is mandatory in order to market your hops, the main raw material in beer production.
WHICH HOPS MUST BE CERTIFIED?
Certification is required for the marketing of hops in the form of dried cones or processed hop products (including pellets).
WHEN SHOULD YOU APPLY FOR CERTIFICATION?
Certification is required before the sale and before processing, as well as after any reprocessing that may have affected the characteristics of the hops.
WHAT CERTIFICATE WILL I RECEIVE?
In Wallonia, the regulatory quality of hops is certified by the Walloon Public Service (SPW) for Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment (ARNE). The certification is represented by a certificate issued by our Quality and Animal Welfare Directorate (DQBEA). We issue this official and unique document for any batch or part of a batch of hop cones or hop products prepared for a customer. We inspect your batches of hops in order to certify them for marketing. Following the inspection, we will provide you with labels to affix to each package comprising the batch or part thereof to be placed on the market.
HOW DO WE CONTROL QUALITY?
Quality is controlled in two ways:
- by you: self-assessment
- by us: we take samples from the hops in order to carry out analyses to ensure that the quality criteria are met. This control is free of charge. It is valid for the given batch of hops.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
See the procedure below to apply for certification of your hops.
In detail
Do you grow, harvest, prepare or process hops and want to market them?
Certification of hops is compulsory in Wallonia.
See the minimum marketing requirements for hop cones on page 11 of the PDF document available below in the “Useful documents” section.
The application may be made in French or German. The certification is compulsory and free of charge.
STEPS TO FOLLOW
REGISTER
1. Send an email to qualite.agriculture@spw.wallonie.be stating that you wish to have your hops certified in order to market them
2. We will assign you an operator number and complete the details in your file
3. We will carry out an on-site visit (for all applications) and an audit to validate the application
o At the time of the on-site visit, you will need to provide us with your producer number (SIGEC, producer, plot) and your farm locations and the plots concerned (land registry reference or LAMBERT coordinates).
4. You are registered as a hop producer and/or processor
5. We will send you the necessary documents for registering products before harvest by post
AT THE TIME OF HARVEST: CERTIFICATION OF HOPS
1. We will edit your production register on the basis of the records/parcels (batches). We will send it to you by email
2. Self-assessment: you carry out your self-assessment based on the documents received
3. Control (analyses): we measure the moisture on site and/or take a sample from each batch before pressing and send the samples (50 g) to a laboratory for determination of seed content and moisture content, as applicable
4. Once the analyses have been carried out and everything has been validated, you will receive your certificate and the labels required for marketing
5. You will package the hop cones as they will be sold or sent for processing
6. You will affix the labels received to each package
- Certification is required before the sale and before processing, as well as after any reprocessing that may have affected the characteristics of the hops
- We will contact you depending on the harvest period
- Decree of the Walloon Government of 9 December 2010 relating to certification in the hops sector (only available in French)
- Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations (EEC) No 922/72, 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001, 1234/2007
- EU Regulation No. 1850/2006 of 14 December 2006 on the methods of certification of hops and hop products
If a batch is rejected for certification, you have 7 days to lodge a complaint with the Inspector-General:
- by post: SPW ARNE – DDRCB – Inspector-General – Avenue Prince de Liège No. 7 – 5100 Namur
- by email: secretariat.ddrcb@spw.wallonie.be