Georgian government will subsidize grape harvest for another year

The Georgian government to subsidize the grape harvest

The Georgian government will subsidize the grape harvest for another year, with about 150 million GEL [$55 million] to be spent thereon. As a result, the minimum price of one kilo of grapes will be 90 tetri [~30 cents].

On August 15, Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili announced this move at a government meeting.

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The Prime Minister reported that about 300 wine companies will be involved in the process of subsidizing:

“Not a single kilogram of grapes will remain undelivered, and the state will provide maximum support to our winegrowers,” Garibashvili stated.

According to the prime minister, a coordination headquarters has already been set up.

The government has been subsidizing the harvest since 2008. The decision to subsidize was made in order to neutralize the consequences of the Russian embargo.

In 2019, the government decided that the sector was already sufficiently developed, and so offered no subsidy that year.

From 2008-2018, 175.8 million GEL has been spent on crop subsidies from the state budget.

The state program of grape subsidy has been renewed since 2020. In the latter year, an unprecedentedly large sum of 104 million lari (about 40 million dollars) was spent on subsidizing the harvest. While in the next year even more was doled out — 138 million.

This program of state subsidies has been investigated by the NGO “Transparency International Georgia”. The organization found a number of issues related to corruption, including preference given to companies which make donations to the ruling party and are connected to high-ranking officials.

Georgian government to subsidize the grape harvest