State-run enterprise Ukrspyrt in January 2016 signed a contract to supply 50,000 decaliters of spirit to Poland's Destylacje Polskie.

The company said in a press release on Thursday that the contract envisages the expansion of shipments.

"Our ambitious goal is to reach the figure for supplies to foreign markets in the first quarter of this year at least the same as for the past year. This would give not only profits to the company, but it would add efficiency to the employers. I will remind that in 2015 around 200,000 decaliters of products were shipped to foreign markets," the press service said, citing Ukrspyrt Deputy Director Serhiy Bleskun.

He said that the focus on exports is also important, as it is anticipated that activity of consumers on the domestic market would fall due to the large increase in the excise duty on spirit (by 50%).

Bleskun said that around 80% of Ukrspyrt's spirit on the domestic market is sold to liquor and vodka producers, which makes the state of the spirit sector depending on the liquor and vodka sector. The increase of the exports share would offset the risks.

He also said that boosting of the export share is one of the top priorities of Ukrspyrt's operations for 2016-2017. At present, negotiations are being held on supply of methyl spirit to Poland and ethyl spirit to Turkey. The company has agreements on shipments of ethyl spirit to Hungary.

Ukrspyrt is subordinated to the Agrarian Policy and Food Ministry. In 2014, its distilleries produced around 15 million decaliters of spirit. The entire volume of spirit was sold on the domestic market.

Ukrspyrt Acting Head Roman Ivaniuk said that the company's distilleries in 2015 produced 25% less alcohol compared to 2014. The loss in 2014 was UAH 550 million, while net profit in 2015 was UAH 300 million.