Rohan Brewery at Ten Years, And Rohan Beer at Seven

The Rohan Brewery, the second largest Ukrainian producer of the heady brew after Kyiv's Obolon, has marked its tenth birthday. They brew there 12 sorts of beer in huge volumes — last year, for instance, the output was 100 million liters. Incidentally, the output increases by half every year. There is no beer fair at which one Rohan product or another does not win an award. At the recent Beer-99 international fair in Sochi, five sorts of Rohan beer won five gold medals (with the whole product line consisting of 35).

Interestingly, despite Rohan's tenth anniversary, it has been brewing beer only since 1992. The brewery was constructed when perestroika was in full swing and, unfortunately, got caught in the Gorbachev anti-alcohol campaign. There even were serious intentions to dismantle the newly installed imported equipment, cut it up, and sell it for scrap. However, the then director of the brewery under construction, Hennady Bilokur and Chairman of the Oblast Executive Committee Oleksandr Maselsky (now deceased) managed to save the plant. But even after the commissioning of the facility the brewers long produced only soft drinks. While it was long been proven that beer is not only an alternative to strong alcoholic beverages (and thus, does not encourage alcoholism), but also is good for everyone: last year, the Rohan Open Joint Stock Company transferred UAH 32.3 million to the state budget. Nonetheless, the state's struggle against brewers continues, though it has shifted from the administrative to economic sphere. Of one hundred Ukrainian breweries, only about ten are in stable operation, and twelve have completely stopped producing beer. The import duties imposed by the state for malt amount to 30% and 50% for hops. When the excise duty was increased last year, many breweries, including Rohan, were operating at a loss, because this popular drink became unaffordable for many people. For reference, in 1998 the average statistical Ukrainian drank 13 liters of beer, while an average statistical Czech quaffed 160 liters.

According to Rohan Brewery President Hennady Bilokur, brewers cannot avoid politics and should form their own parliamentary lobby so safeguard the interests of the sector. The enterprise's workforce, which for a short time became Europe's largest producer of live (unpasteurized) beer, is committed to further increasing its output. And to be able to do this, it needs stable and reliable rule.