Ukraine & China: Obolon beer enters the Chinese market

Obolon Corporation, one of the largest producers of beer and soft drinks in Ukraine, is entering the Chinese market, Interfax-Ukraine reported on April 17.

Head of the supervisory board of public joint-stock company Obolon, Serhiy Bloschanevych, said at the National Export Forum that Ukrainian breweries are trying to compensate their loss of part of the domestic market.

He said that the most promising markets are the Asian, Latin American and African markets, while the EU market is saturated and competitive.

"The markets of Asia, Latin America and Africa are more interesting for us. For example, we started working with China," he said.

He told Interfax-Ukraine that the first small batches of beer have been already shipped to China.

Bloschanevych expressed indignation at the absence of a government reaction to the ban on Ukrainian beer imports by Russia's Rospotrebnadzor last year.

"We asked the Ukrainian prime minister, the Economic Development and Trade Ministry and Foreign Ministry several times to settle the issue with a ban on importing Russian beer in response to the ban of our exports to Russia. Some steps have been made, but this is not enough. We hope that the situation will be finally resolved," he said.

Referring to the State Statistics Service, he said that since September 2014 Ukraine has imported more beer than it sells to foreign markets.

From August 15, 2014, Russian Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare (Rospotrebnadzor) banned imports of beer made by Obolon, SUN InBev Ukraine and Ukrainian Distribution Company.

Obolon Corporation is one of the largest Ukrainian producers of beer, soft drinks, mineral water, and is the country's largest exporter of beer.

The corporation consists of the main plant in Kyiv and nine companies in the regions.

24 April, 2015