Georgia’s exports to Russia increases 315%

The value of Georgian exports to Russia has made a staggering leap in in the past 12 months, with local wine, mineral water and electricity being the main local products sent to it's northern neighbour. 

The export of Georgian products to Russia increased by 315 percent ($144 million USD) while imports rose by 24 percent ($116 million USD) last year in comparison to 2012. 

The considerable change of trade turnover was due to the removal of embargo on imports of agricultural products in 2012, Policy and Management Consulting Group’s (PMCG) stated in its report Trade with Russia - 2013, which is based on data from state statistics office Geostat.

Last year the total volume of exports from Georgia to Russia was $190 million USD (24% of turnover), while the import volume was $589 million USD (76% of turnover).

The share of exports to Russia in the total exports of Georgia to the world countries was seven percent and the share of the imports was seven percent too.

Russia was Georgia’s fourth largest export and import partner country in 2013.

In total, the trade turnover expanded by 50 percent (2$60 million USD) with Russia last year.

Wine – top export product to Russia

The top five exported commodities to Russia last year were wine (30%), mineral water (18%), ferro-alloys (7%), electricity (6%) and citruses (4%).

In particular, wine had the highest share in total export to Russia.

Hvino News, based on data from Russia’s Customs Service, reported yesterday that Georgia had become the third largest wine importer to Russia, outrunning Spain in the first three months of 2014.

The volume of export of mineral waters reached $34 million USD and export of wine increased to $56 million USD. Export of ferro-alloys increased by $8 million USD compared to 2012 and reached $13 million USD.

From 2000 to 2005, the annual growth rate of wine, mineral water and ferro alloys were 25%, 30% and 48% respectively.

In 2007 export of wine and mineral water dropped to zero due to the Russian embargo on imports of agricultural products from Georgia, which was imposed in spring of 2006.

Wheat – top import product from Russia

Georgia imported from Russia wheat (24% of the total imports from Russia), petroleum (19%), gas (9%), electricity (6%) and chocolate (3%).

In 2013, the top five export destinations for Georgia were Azerbaijan (24%), Armenia (11%), Ukraine (7%), Russia (7%), Turkey (6%).

Top five import destinations were Turkey (17%), Azerbaijan (8%), Ukraine (8%), Russia (7%) and China (7%).