Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2024/602 of 14 December 2023 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the marketing standards in the hop sector and repealing Commission Regulation (EC) No 1850/2006

This Regulation lays down rules supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 as regards the marketing standards for hops and hop products referred to in Article 2 and the conditions under which hops and hop products are exempted from certification requirement laid down in Article 77(4) of that Regulation.

This Regulation shall apply to: (a) hop cones falling under CN code 12101000 covered by Part VI of Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 when harvested in the Union or imported from third countries in accordance with Article 190 of that Regulation; (b) hop products falling under CN codes 121020 and 13021300 covered by Part VI of Annex I to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 prepared in the Union or imported from third countries in accordance with Article 190 of that Regulation. It shall not apply to isomerised hop products.

For the purposes of this Regulation and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/601, the following definitions shall apply: (a) ‘hop cones’ or ‘hops’ means the inflorescences, of the (female) climbing hop plant (Humulus lupulus); these inflorescences, which are greenish yellow and of an ovoid shape, have a flower stalk and their longest dimension generally varies from 2 to 5 cm; (b) ‘unprepared hops’ means hops which have undergone only preliminary drying and packaging; (c) ‘prepared hops’ means hops which have undergone final drying and final packaging; (d) ‘seeded hops’ means hops marketed with a seed content exceeding 2 % of their weight after drying; (e) ‘seedless hops’ means hops marketed with a seed content not exceeding 2 % of their weight after drying; (f) ‘hop product’ means a product derived from hop cones which have undergone a more significant transformation, such as hop powders, pellets or extracts; (g) ‘isomerised hop product’ means hop product in which the alpha acids have been almost totally isomerised; (h) ‘consignment’ means a number of packages of hops with the same characteristics presented at the same time for certification by the same individual or associated producer or by the same processor; (i) ‘hop production areas’ means the zones or regions of production in the list drawn up by the Member States concerned; (j) ‘sealing’ means closure of the package in such a way that the means of closure will be damaged when the package is opened; (k) ‘marking’ means labelling and identification; (l) ‘closed operating circuit’ means a process for preparing or processing hops in such a way that no hops or processed products can be added or removed during the operation. The closed operating circuit starts with the opening of the sealed package containing the hops or hop products to be prepared or processed and ends with the sealing of the package containing the prepared hops or processed hop product; (m) ‘competent certification authority’ means the body or department authorised by the Member State to carry out certification and to approve and control certification centres; (n) ‘certification centre’ means a venue where certification is carried out; (o) ‘representatives of a competent certification authority’ means personnel either employed by the competent certification authority, or employed by a third party and authorised by the competent certification authority to carry out certification duties; (p) ‘official surveillance’ means supervision of certification activities by the competent certification authority or its representatives.

Hop cones and hop products harvested and/or prepared within the Union may only be marketed if they have undergone a certification procedure in accordance with Article 2 of Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/601 and are accompanied by a certificate referred to in Article 77(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013.

The certification requirement referred to in Article 4 shall not apply to: (a) hops harvested on land owned by a brewery or grown on contract for a brewery and used by that brewery in the natural or processed state; (b) hop products processed under contract on behalf of a brewery, provided that those products are used by the brewery; (c) hops and hop products for sale to private individuals for their own use put in small packets of not more than 5 kg in the case of cones, powders and pellets and 1 kg in the case of extracts or isomerised hop products, with a description of the product and its weight on the package.

1 For hops grown by a brewery on their own land or grown on contract for a brewery to be used by the brewery, the brewer shall, by 15 November of each year at the latest, send to the competent certification authority a harvest declaration of the varieties grown, the quantities harvested, the places of production and the areas planted, together with the land register references or an official equivalent thereof.

2 In the case of hops processed under contract on behalf of a brewery, before the hops enter the establishment where they are to be processed, the brewery shall provide the processor and the competent certification authority with a processing document with the following information: (a) a unique reference number identifying the contract; (b) the recipient brewery; (c) the name and address of the processing establishment; (d) the unique reference number of the certificate of the hops or hop products to be processed and/or, in case of imported hops, the attestation of equivalence provided for in Article 190(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and/or a copy of the harvest declaration of the hops to be processed.

3 The following entries shall be entered by the processor in the processing document after the processing operation: (a) a description of the processed product; (b) the weight of the processed product.

4 The processing document referred to in paragraph 2 shall be given a unique reference number, which shall also appear on the packaging. The following additional indication shall be included on the document and on the package: ‘hops/hop products for own use; may not be marketed’.

1 In case a certified consignment of hops is split up for sale, the product shall be accompanied by an invoice or a commercial document drawn up by the vendor including the weight of the part sold.

2 The invoice or commercial document shall also bear the following information, taken from the certificate referred to in Article 4: (a) the description of the product; (b) the gross or net weight of the original certified consignment; (c) the place and area of production; (d) the variety; (e) the year of harvest; (f) the unique reference number of the certificate.

1 Blended products of the hops sector may only be certified if they were blended under official surveillance in certification centres.

2 Where hop cones are blended to be used as such or transformed into a hop product, each of the consignments used for the blend shall meet the minimum quality requirements laid down in Annex I. Hop cones to be used as such may only be blended with hop cones from the same variety, production area and year of harvest.

3 Certified hop products prepared from certified hops which are from the same year of harvest, but of different varieties and/or from different hop production areas may be blended in the manufacture of hop products provided that the certificate accompanying the product states: (a) the varieties used, the hop production areas and the year of harvest; (b) the percentage weight of each variety used in the blend; if hop products have been used in combination with hop cones for the manufacturing of hop products, or if different hop products have been used, the percentage of each variety shall be based on the weight of the hop cones which were used for the preparation of the input products; (c) the reference numbers of the certificates issued for the hops and hop products used.

Regulation (EC) No 1850/2006 is repealed. References to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as references to this Regulation and to Implementing Regulation (EU) 2024/601 and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in Annex II.

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.