The winemakers and winegrowers of Ukraine have demanded that state authorities should within six months carry out a full liberalization of small wineries.

This requirement is contained in an appeal of participants in the First National Wine Forum to the president, the prime minister, and the Verkhovna Rada head.

The winemakers also demand the cancellation of licenses for wine wholesale and retail sale for producers who use their own raw materials to simplify the procedure of obtaining permits for production, certification and market access.

Furthermore, the winemakers require abolishing the indexation of the normative monetary evaluation of agricultural land, reducing land tax for permanent crops, applying reduced rates in the period of fruiting, developing and adopting a state targeted program for the support and micro lending to small enterprises and farms.

The winemakers and winegrowers also demand the introduction of a five-year moratorium on raising excise tax on wine products until the situation in the industry stabilizes, eliminating dry wine from the list of excisable products, making changes to the Tax Code to cancel advance payment of income tax and introducing automatic VAT refunds for wine exporters.