You're reading: Ukraine makes it to world vodka-drinking podium

Ukraine is the world’s third-largest consumer of vodka, having drunk a little more than 300 million liters of the spirit in 2012, or enough for every Ukrainian man, woman and child to consume about 7.7 liters throughout the year, states the report of market-research firm IWSR.

Russia topped the IWSR list of vodka consumers, downing nearly 2 billion
liters of it last year, or enough for every Russian to consume 13.9 liters. The
U.S. came in second, just above Ukraine, with a little more than 600 million
liters drunk, or 1.9 liters per American.

A similar report published by the World Health Organization in 2011 found
Ukraine to be the fifth-highest alcohol consuming country in the world. Every
Ukrainian older than 15 years consumes 15.6 liters of pure alcohol yearly,
according to the report.

According to the director of Ukraine’s
National Alcohol and Drug Observatory Anatoliy Viyevsky, 7.5-8 liters per
capita is considered to be a safe level for society.

But excessive alcohol consumption is one of the
prime factors of premature deaths of Ukrainians, especially the male
population, believes the director of the Institute of Demography and Social
Studies, Ella Libanova.

She referred to a 1985 decree introduced by
Mikhail Gorbachev and Yegor Ligachev on the fight against drunkenness and
alcoholism, which led to the increase in male life expectancy for three years.
“We haven’t’ seen such dynamics neither before, nor after,” Libanova said.

The Ukrainian government has claimed to be
working on various ways to tackle alcoholism. One such law draft meant to
address the issue proposed increasing the tax on beer from Hr 0.87 to Hr 2.43
per liter, which would lead to price hikes on the suds.

“Firstly, (the new tax) is additional revenue to
the state budget. But equally important is our common position with the
Ministry of Health – taking care of the nation’s health,” said Oleksandr
Klymenko, minister for revenues and duties.

However, looking back at the WHO and IWSR statistics, beer consumption
should not be a matter of concern for the government. An adult Ukrainian drinks
5.21 liters of pure alcohol, as opposed to 2.69 liters of beer, reports the
WHO.

The legal drinking age in Ukraine, for both beer and spirits, is
18-years-old.

Kyiv Post
intern Anna Shamanska can be reached at
[email protected].