Georgian dairy congress: production of high-quality milk doubled in 2015-2018
The rise in milk production in Georgia started in 2015 thanks to assistance from the FAO and the EBRD. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge.
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The production of high-quality milk in Georgia more than doubled between 2015 and 2018, the fifth dairy congress in Tbilisi has announced.
More than 200 commercial dairy farmers, processors, equipment suppliers, industry experts and government representatives met at the congress.
The rise in milk production in Georgia started in 2015 thanks to assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The joint EBRD-FAO project is aimed at assisting Georgian SMEs in adapting to the challenges brought about by increased competition in the local market.
More than 200 commercial dairy farmers, processors, equipment suppliers, industry experts and government representatives met at the congress. Photo: FAO.
As a result, all players along the dairy chain in Georgia need to raise the safety and quality standards of their products and differentiate them in national and export markets.
Improving the quality and safety of products and increasing efficiency are key to staying competitive in the dairy sector. We are assisting through knowledge sharing, targeted advice and by supporting the expansion of commercial milk producers’ capacities, but there are still too few producers to reverse existing negative market trends”, said Nina Kuzmina from EBRD’s Agribusiness Department.
FAO economist Andriy Yarmak added that one of the major problems in Georgia is the lack of educated dairy professionals: veterinarians, feed crop production agronomists and nutritionists.
Georgia would greatly benefit from good university programmes in these areas, which would educate students in all elements of modern production technologies”, Yarmak said.
The Georgian Dairy Association intends to conduct a campaign to promote local milk and its products and further increase consumer awareness in order to increase demand for raw milk as a healthy product.
A survey, conducted by the Georgian Dairy Association highlighted seasonality and the limited quantity of milk as one of the main challenges for the dairy sector. Increasing the number of commercial farms was cited as one possible solution to remedy these issues.
Georgia is taking action to promote products made from natural milk, while safeguarding consumers’ rights and balancing competition between milk producing companies.
Georgia is continuing to crack down on misleading labelling of dairy products. From July 1 food labels such as cheese and butter will only apply to animal milk products.
A new nut processing factory, a tea factory and a milk processing plant will built in Georgia within the ‘Produce in Georgia’ state program.
Strict rules are being introduced in Georgia meaning local producers can no longer label their dairy products with misleading claims such as "with fats similar to cottage cheese” or "with fats similar to sour cream” and so on.
Georgia imported $29.6 million in milk in 2019, show preliminary data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat), out of which the import of thickened or sugar added milk amounted to $21.3 million, while the value of sugar-free milk import came to $8.3 million.
Milk production across Georgia increased by 5.6 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2023, reaching 206.0 million litres, while meat production decreased by 8.2 percent y/y and equalled 17,300 tonnes, the National Statistics Office said on Wednesday.