Ukraine: Ukrainians prefer more expensive beers

The most important 2006 year’s trends were seen in premium beer segment, with an increase in sales volume, Russian Beer Union announced March 26. “Premium beer market share rose 60% in 2006 and reached 8% of the market while medium sector growth didn’t overpass 5%”, Serghey Kalinin, General Manager of Sarmat Brewing Group said.

The total beer production rose 12.4% in 2006 which is less than in 2005, when the growth constituted 23%. Thus, in 2006 an average Ukrainian consumed 45-50 litres of beer. Market analysts noted an increase of interest in strong beer sector, with 15% increase in consumption.

Market participants expect a price growth for beer. More expensive water, barley and excise-duty increase are the main factors for that. “Already today the barley prices rose 20-30% and could overpass last year index by 80-90%”, Oksana Pirojok, company’s PR commented.

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