Gov’t to subsidise wheat flour to avoid increase in bread prices

The Georgian government has decided to subsidise high quality wheat flour to avoid increase in bread prices, said Agriculture Minister Levan Davitashvili earlier today.

The programme will come into force next week and will end on March 31.

Davitashvili noted that the price of flour is rising in the country and therefore it could be reflected in the price of bread, while declared ‘with full responsibility that the price of bread will not increase’.

He noted that wheat is a subject of special international trade and its price is determined by many factors. Davitashvili noted that the government will make further decisions depending on what the global prices for wheat flour will be after four months.

[The government] has assessed the next three-four months period and the state has decided that this type of intervention was needed at the moment,” he said.

Davitashvili noted that the country had over 100,000 tonnes of wheat stocks for autumn, which allowed the price to be balanced, but he added that starting September the price of wheat increased in the Black Sea countries which could be reflected in the price of products made from wheat flour.

The fixed price of 50-kilogram first-grade quality wheat flour is set at 53 GEL.

The state subsidy will not exceed 10 GEL per 50-kilogram of wheat flour.

The budget of the programme is 10 million GEL.