Queen's Birthday Honours: Tom Inglis

Tom Inglis

Tom Inglis was made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his services to the hop industry - largely because of the toehold he secured for New Zealand-grown hops in international markets.

Soon after Inglis took over the family hop business in the 1970s, he realised it was make-or-break time. The industry had to start exporting or it would die.

In 1981, a Lincoln University Foundation scholarship sent him on a trip to meet other hop growers and catch up on the technology for extractors, and methods of packing and transporting hops. It also gave him some of the contacts he needed to get hops into international breweries.

He got the first international sale soon after, when he visited Japan's Asahi brewery.

His citation said his greatest contribution was as export marketing director of the NZ Hop Marketing Board for 21 years, during which time production of hops doubled.

He estimates that when he started out in 1974, about 10 per cent of the New Zealand hop crop was sold overseas. Now it is about 90 per cent of 800,000 kilos a year, earning about $8 million.