Gov’t to subside grape harvest with $19mln
The subsidy would set the price of one kg of the Rkatsiteli and Kakhuri Mtsvane varieties at 20 tetri. Photo: Nino Alavidze/Agenda.ge
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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.
Shamugia said the subsidy would set the price of one kg of the Rkatsiteli and Kakhuri Mtsvane varieties at 20 tetri.
All enterprises that receive and process more than 100 tonnes of grapes will receive a subsidy in the amount of 20 tetri if they pay at least 90 tetri for 1 kg of grapes. As for the grapes that cannot be processed by the private sector, of course, our state enterprise will take them and process them”, Shamugia said.
Shamugia also said a reduced harvest was expected this year due to climate change affecting the quantity and quality of grapes.
The official announced a coordination centre would open on August 25-26 to ensure organised harvest this year.
The Minister noted wine exports were increasing and added the figure had marked a 30 percent growth last year, with a “significant rise” also observed over the past seven months.
He said 103 million litres of wine, worth $252 million, had been exported to 66 countries over the past year, setting a record in the country's independent history.
The wine festival featuring 65 large, medium and small local wineries was hosted in Tsageri, a small town in western Georgia's Racha-Lechkhumi region, the country’s Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture said on Sunday.
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”.
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.
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.
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.
Georgian Agriculture Minister Otar Shamugia on Wednesday highlighted the Government’s support for the country’s agriculture sector over the recent years, noting the backing given to winemakers and hazelnut farmers in particular.
Within the framework of Harvest 2023, up to 8000 tonnes of grapes had already been processed in the eastern winemaking Kakheti region, including 3600 tonnes of Rkatsiteli, 3000 tonnes Saperavi and other varieties, Levan Mekhuzla, the Chair of the National Wine Agency of Georgia said on Saturday.
Georgia's Ministry of Agriculture on Tuesday said 1,050 tonnes of grapes damaged by heavy rainfall, hail and strong winds in the country’s eastern winemaking region of Kakheti last week had been accepted from farmers by the state enterprise Harvest Management Company thanks to a state subsidy.