Ukrainian alcohol producers insist on the introduction of a minimum price of wine at UAH 15 per 0.7-liter bottle or one-liter Tetrapak package.
“Earlier we proposed UAH 13, but time has passed, and there were
reports in the mass media that it would be UAH 18, but we demand UAH 15
per 0.7-liter bottle or UAH 15 per one-liter Tetrapak package,” the
marketing director at CJSC Alef-Vinal, Anatoliy Kohan, said at a press
conference on Thursday.
He said that the image of the sector is being damaged by unlicensed wine production.
The board chairman of Khortytsa distillery, Yevhen Cherniak, said
that he backs the government’s decision to increase the bottom prices
of vodka and cognac, and it is logical to introduce them for wine to
remove counterfeit wine from the market.
He also said that today the minimum price of UAH 13 per bottle is out of date.
“We’ll ask the government and insist on an increase in the minimum price of wine from UAH 13 to UAH 15,” he said.
However, market player’s opinions regarding the excise policy vary.
Kohan said that this is was a suffocating policy, while Cherniak
said that the increase in the excise duty was a forced measure, as the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) required this.
“The position of our company is the following: it’s better for one
sector to feel ill effects than for the whole country to go without an
IMF credit,” Cherniak said.
