PM Garibashvili on Georgia exports to Russia

Georgia’s Prime Minister says the country has not been notified by the European Union (EU) to restrict exports of its products to Russia.

Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili said the EU issued a recommendation for all major EU exporters to refrain from exporting to Russia however clarified this recommendation was not intended for Georgia.

"Georgia has not received such messages from the EU. This relates to the major exporters and Georgia is not among them and respectively, it does not affect our country,” he said.

"We should be interested to sell the production made by our population everywhere and to make our market more diverse,” Garibashvili added.

Russian news agency Itar Tass quoted European Commission representative Peter Stano as saying EU membership candidate countries should refrain from substituting products of European manufacturers on the European market.

However, this news was denied by Garibashvili and Georgia’s Agricultural Minister Otar Danelia, who also confirmed Georgia had not received an official demand of this nature from the EU.

"I underline that many statements are being made by many representatives [of the EU] but most important and considerable statements are the ones which will be officially addressed to the state of Georgia. Accordingly nothing official has been [said] in this direction and I can’t say anything new about this topic,” Danelia said.

In 2006 Russia banned imports of Georgian products. Tensions in the Georgia-Russia relationship grew after the August war in 2008, when diplomatic relations between the countries were torn.

Meanwhile Georgia resumed exporting wine to Russia in 2013 for the first time since the 2006 embargo. Since then exporting of mineral water, fruits and vegetables have also been approved. 

Data from state statistics office Geostat revealed in the first quarter of 2014, Russian exports composed 9.4 percent of Georgia’s total exports.