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

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

In January 2014 breweries produced 12.1 million decaliters of beer.

In 2013 beer consumption per capita fell to 56 liters from 68 liters in 2012. The share of beer in 2013 was 34% of alcohol consumption (measured in terms of absolute alcohol content), where 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 halt production or partly close facilities if the market situation does not change by summer.

As was reported with reference to Ukrpyvo, Ukraine in 2013 cut beer output by 8%, to 276.4 million. 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 300 million decaliters.