PM highlights “record high” wine export, agriculture progress in 2022 report
Georgia exported about 103 litres of wine worth $252.5 million to 66 countries in 2022, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili told the country’s Parliament on Friday. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge
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Georgia exported about 103 litres of wine worth $252.5 million to 66 countries in 2022, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili told the country’s Parliament on Friday, adding the figures marked a “record high” in the independence period of the country since the early 1990s.
In comments for the annual report of the Government’s work, Garibashvili said exports of Georgian wine had been increased to Japan (+68%), Estonia (+50%), Russia (+50%), Germany (+34%), Poland (+30%), the United States (+28%) and Latvia (+20%).
Export of wine have increased by 129 percent, alcoholic beverages by 26 percent and fruit and vegetable juice by 100 percent since the 2014 signing of the free trade agreement with the European Union, he also noted.
Garibashvili told lawmakers 257,000 tonnes of grapes had been harvested and processed in the country last year, with farmers generating ₾270 million ($103.66mln) in the process, adding the total volume of investment in agriculture last year amounted to ₾6.2 billion ($2.38bln) only from state programmes.
Garibashvili singled out the Plant the Future state programme, which he said had led to 40,000 tonnes of harvest worth ₾85 million ($32.63mln) from the orchards planted over 20,000 hectares of territory. He noted the programme employed up to 10,000 permanent and 45,000 temporary workers.
He named irrigation as one of the main challenges in agriculture, adding “unprecedented” financial resource of over $300 million had been attracted last year to the area from four “major international financial institutions”.
Today, the area of irrigated agricultural land has increased from 45,000 to 165,000 hectares, and the area of drained land has increased from 14,000 to 43,000 hectares”, he said.
Garibashvili noted production value in agriculture totalled ₾15.2 billion ($5.8bln), a 112 percent increase over the past 10 years. He also said the added value created in the field had increased by 96 percent to ₾4.4 billion ($1.69bln) in the same period.
Georgian wine producers are showcased in the international wine fair VinExpo Paris in the French capital, the National Wine Agency said on Tuesday.
Twenty Georgian women winemakers are featuring in events promoting Georgian wine in the United Kingdom, with venues in London hosting the showcases.
Georgia exported about 103 litres of wine worth $252.5 million to 66 countries in 2022, Agriculture Minister Otar Shamugia told the country’s Parliament on Thursday, adding the figures marked a “record high” in the independence period of the country since the early 1990s.
Export of Georgian agricultural products to countries of the European Union is on the rise, with the Ministry of Agriculture data showing a 21 percent year-on-year increase in the figure in the first quarter of 2023.
The National Wine Agency of Georgia on Thursday revealed it had joined Eco2Wine, a project supported by the European Union’s Horizon Europe Doctoral Training Network aiming to strengthen global innovation and communication in the winemaking industry.
The Georgian Government will subsidise the harvest of winemakers across the country in the coming fall and also anticipates a part of this year’s yield to be of “inadequate quality” due to “climate conditions”.
About ₾50 million ($19mln) has been allocated to subsidising this year’s grape harvest across Georgia in order to “financially support farmers” and ensure "not a single kilogram of grapes is left behind", Agriculture Minister Otar Shamugia said on Thursday.
The export value of Georgian agro-food products in 2023 increased by 27.7 percent, compared to the same figure of the previous year, amounting to $787.5 million, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia said on Friday.
Levan Mekhuzla, the Chair of the National Wine Agency of Georgia, on Saturday said 2500 tonnes of grapes had already been processed in the eastern winemaking Kakheti region.
Sixteen Georgian wine companies, including both large and small wineries, were showcased at Daejeon International Wine Festival in South Korea between September 3-6, the Georgian Agriculture Ministry said on Monday.