CJSC Koktebel winery that is located in Crimea, one of the Ukraine's largest wineries, has plans in 2009 to retain wine production at the 2008 level of about 550 000 decaliters, marketing director Natalya Vorozheikina, has told to the press.

"I expect that in 2009 year we will achieve the same results as previous year," she noted.

She admitted that the situation at the Ukrainian wine market now stabilized: a small rise has offset the plunge seen in early 2009. The expert added that market segments are being redistributed, and consumers are purchasing cheaper products.

"Sales of expensive products have fallen, but cheap wine is bought well," Vorozheikina mentioned.

Koktebel CEO Oleksandr Garan said that the company has intentions this year to harvest around 9,000 tones of grapes, against almost 8,000 tones last year.

"The quality of the grapes will be perfect. The harvesting campaign has already been started. We have harvested 200 tones and started processing it," he said.

Commenting the cognac market, Vorozheikina mentioned that crisis touched this segment most of all.

However, she noted that recently the situation has significantly improved. According to her forecasts, this year one can expect a fall in cognac production in Ukraine by some 12% compared to the previous year.

She reported that mainly the indicator will depend on the pace of the downturn, problems with excise duty, the activity of rivals and the situation at OJSC Tavria cognac plant in the region of Nova Kakhovka (Kherson region of Ukraine).

"I guess that as a whole the cognac market will see a 5-9% fall, and the ceiling figure is 12%," she said.

As reported, in 2008, the winery boosted sales of its products by 45% year-over-year, to UAH 425 million.

Koktebel winery is one of Ukraine's largest wineries. It produces wine and cognac and has a full cycle of production.