E-Malt.com News article: Ukraine: Hops import duties could rise 2-4 times

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has registered a bill proposing an increase in import duties on hops and related products 2-4 times, which would certainly lead to increases in beer prices, Delo.UA reported on July, 09.

For now, Ukraine imports hops in pellets and hop extract. The import duty on pellets is 20%, on extract – 10%. Though the bill does not foresee a change in duty rate, it stipulates a minimal rate in Euro (20 EUR for pellets and 12 EUR for extract, per kilo of alpha acid).

Ukraine’s hop growers harvested a good crop in 2009, and the current prices on domestic hops are very low.

Increased duties would certainly lead to increased production costs, Ukrainian brewers said.

09 July, 2010