Due to the armed invasion of the Russian Federation into Ukraine and the shutdown of part of the country’s economy, a decrease in the welfare and purchasing power of the population is expected, due to which, in particular, consumers of high-mountain water will switch to cheaper bottled water, while consumers of bottled water will mainly switch to filtered tap water.
Dmitry Nikiforov, the owner and founder of AT Market LLC (Kyiv), engaged in bottling high-mountain Carpathian water under the trademarks Voda UA, Goryanka, Karpatska Vysokogyrna, told Interfax-Ukraine about the inevitable narrowing and decline of the water market.
“Narrowing and shrinking of the market will occur, because we objectively understand that the well-being and purchasing power of people are declining, and the consumer will save as much as possible on all consumer goods,” he said.
“A priori, our water cannot be cheap. This is Carpathian water, which, by definition, will be more expensive than all the others, thanks to the logistics and complexity of its production. We work in the “medium plus” segment, and it will sag significantly. This is inevitable,” stated Nikiforov.
As reported with reference to the new forecast of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the fall in Ukraine’s GDP in 2022 will be 30%. If large-scale efforts of the world community to restore the country’s economy take place, next year its economy is expected to grow by 25%. In March, the EBRD estimated this decline at 20% with an increase of 23% in 2023.
