E-Malt.com News article: Ukraine: Beer production continues to fall

Ukraine saw a further decline in beer production in January 2014: it was 14% down year-over-year, the Ukrpyvo Association reported on February 14.

"It's disastrous. We've never had such a decline in January year to year," Halyna Korenkova, Ukrpyvo Director General said.

In January 2014 breweries produced 1.21 mln hl of beer.

In 2013 beer consumption per capita fell to 56 litres from 68 litres in 2012. The share of beer in 2013 was 34% of alcohol consumption (measured in terms of absolute alcohol content), while it was 36-37% in 2012.

Korenkova says that the cause behind the stagnation of the beer industry is a number of factors, including a decline in households' purchasing capacity and poorly considered excise policy. She also pointed to a rise in beer imports to Ukraine, in both monetary and physical terms. Thus, under current conditions, it's difficult to forecast beer production in 2014, she said.

Almost all breweries saw a decline in beer output in January 2014. Some of them are ready either to halt production or partly close facilities if the market situation does not change by summer.

As was reported with reference to Ukrpyvo, in 2013 Ukraine cut beer output by 8%, to 27.64 mln hl. On average, breweries had 60% of their facilities in operation.

The year 2012 also saw a decline in beer output – it fell by 1.5%, to 30.0 mln hl.


19 February, 2014