“The white market of Ukrainian books is at 45% of its pre-war level,” Oleksandr Krasovytskyy, Director of Folio publishers

The “white” market volume of Ukrainian books is currently at 40-45% of the pre-war level. Oleksandr Krasovytskyy, Director of Folio publishers made this statement during a briefing at Media Center Ukraine — Ukrinform.

“It seems to me that this is a very good indicator, considering what number of paying readers went abroad. And it is very difficult to ship a book there from Ukraine, because delivery is very expensive,” — Oleksandr Krasovytskyy explained.

According to him, a big problem for the Ukrainian book publishing market is the so-called “pirate” editions of russian books.

“Today, approximately 15-20% of the paper book market on the Internet is a shadow market of books by russian publishing houses that were printed here. In June, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law restricting the sale, import and printing of books originating from the russian federation. But the law has not been signed by the President. And this is very unfortunate, because the influence of those large stocks of russian and belarusian books, which were imported back in the winter, is still very strong on the market. Unfortunately, it also allows Ukrainian pirates to reprint here a large number of books they steal from russian publishers. In particular, books that were published in russia already during the war,” — the Director of Folio publishers said.

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