Government to facilitate exports

Import is 4.5 times greater than export in Georgia. The country’s negative trade balance is more than USD 4 billion. This is a headache for the Government, which realises that such a situation damages the country’s economy very dramatically, so the idea of creating a special department for export facilitation has come on to the agenda.

Minister of Economic Development Lasha Zhvania thinks this is a positive move which should bring positive results for the country. He highlights that the creation of export markets is a priority for any country.

Georgia received a serious blow in 2006 when Russia imposed its embargo on the main agricultural products Georgia was exporting to Russia, wine, alcohol and mineral water. Since then Georgia has managed to partially recover by entering alternative markets. Today Georgian wine is exported to more than 55 countries and mineral water to 54 countries, however the volume of all these exports combined is much less than the volume which was once exported to Russia.

Georgia has now started exporting more agricultural products, including green vegetables, tinned products, fruit and juice. There is also some prospect of reviving the Georgian tea industry, and new possibilities might open up when the free trade regime with European countries is finalised. These are the challenges for Georgian administration, which should do its best to support Georgian agriculture if it is going to achieve pre-embargo export figures again.