They serve it out of vans, buses and even a fleet of bright pink snails — in Kiev, coffee is everywhere. However, these ubiquitous coffee stands could soon become a rarity as the Kiev City Government mounts a crackdown which many fear could put them out of business.
The Ukrainian capital is a coffee-lovers’ paradise, with the streets dotted with more than 1,500 trucks serving drinks to a city with a growing love of caffeine.
However, officials in Kiev have recently tightened the regulations, increasing red tape and running costs for these roadside baristas in a move which could put many of them out of business.
Photo: EPA
Maxim Rozhin had been selling coffee for 18 months when officials turned up and seized the vehicle without any explanation.
“It was 4pm. The truck was parked when about 10 people arrived. They surrounded it and took it away,” the 34-year-old told reporters.
Rozhin said he had submitted all the necessary documents to operate his coffee truck, but said the authorities “were asking for more” — namely, a sticker “proving” that he had gone through a newly-established auction procedure in order to be able to trade there.
In August, new regulations came into force requiring coffee truck owners to bid for the rights to operate at a certain spot, in a move the city hopes would help fill its coffers.
“If we want Kiev to be a European city, then there needs to be clear regulations,” Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said in a statement. “Coffee trucks and kiosks cannot just set up wherever they want and not contribute to the budget.”
So far, more than 230 spots have been sold in two rounds of auctions, with prices running from 4,388 to 361,000 hryvnias (US$190 to US$15,662) per spot, the city said.
Until the new measures came in to place, traders paid nothing and only a small amount in tax, with the city earning a modest 500,000 hryvnias from the coffee business over the past three years.
Now it is expecting to bring in millions.
Coffee trucks first appeared on the streets of the Ukrainian capital in 2008 and since then they have become part and parcel of the urban landscape.
During last year’s protests in Kiev’s Maidan Square that toppled the pro-Russian government of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych and sparked the events that led to the war in the east, the vans took center stage, providing refreshments to freezing demonstrators camped out at the site.
The trucks are hugely popular, serving up a wide range of coffees to a loyal public.
“Everyone has his own regular customers,” Rozhin said. “Everyone earns a little bit and everyone is happy.”
However, since the city began cracking down, many said they would not be able to pay the new costs and could go out of business.
The prospect has sparked an angry response from business owners and the public.
At a protest outside Kiev City Hall, local coffee truck association chief Vitaly Gorski said: “200,000 or 300,000 hryvnias? Those are unrealistic numbers!”
Indignant truck drivers have also protested outside city hall against regulations they have denounced as illegal.
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