Besides the lack of the high-quality barley, Ukrainian brewers experience shortage of malt-producing capacities. Although malt output in 2002 grew by 13,5 % and amounted to 173,301ths ton, it was still not enough to satisfy domestic brewing industry. With the beer output of 150mln dl, estimated demand for malt makes up 260ths ton.

Deficit of high-quality malt is covered with import, which fell by almost 11 percent in 2002 and amounted to 44,219ths ton.

To ensure self-sufficiency, major beer producers expand their own malt production. Each major player has malt-producing capacities. They have either separated malt-houses or malt-producing units within the breweries. Sarmat and BBH (which owns malt-house “Slavutsky”, the largest malt-house in Ukraine with planned production capacity of 80ths ton per year) satisfy their demand for malt to the full extent by their own malt production. The surplus of malt they sell to Obolon and Sun-Interbrew whose own malt output satisfy their needs only by 60-70 per cent. To reduce the malt deficit, Sun-Interbrew is constructing new malt-house with planned production capacity of 30 000 ton per year.

15 April, 2003