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Georgia’s food and agricultural exports have almost reached the $1,000,000,000 threshold

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BM.GE
05.02.19 17:55
641
“In 2018, Georgian wine exports reached a record 200 million USD threshold (86 million bottles). Similarly, Georgia’s food & agricultural exports almost hit their 1 billion USD threshold, attaining a historic maximum since independence”, is noted in a report published by ISET Policy Institute.

In 2018 Georgia’s imports have also reached their maximum. As a result, the trade balance (the difference between export and import) remained virtually unchanged at (-394) million USD. Although, compared to 2017, export increased by 23.2% (181 million USD), while the respective imports grew by only 15.5% (179 million USD). Out of sharp increase of 181 million USD, only 26 million USD are attributed to wine, while the rest came from trade in tobacco and cigars. Since Georgia cultivates very little tobacco, the growth was instigated mostly from the import, slight processing and re-export of tobacco products. Consequently, the export of tobacco & cigars increased by 240% in 2018, and it currently holds second place (after wine) in Georgia’s total food & agricultural exportation (nearly 160 million USD). In 2018, it contributed staggeringly to over 100 million USD in export growth. Along with wine and tobacco, the export of Georgia’s other main food & agricultural products, such as spirits, natural and mineral water, lamb and mutton, citruses, and peaches & nectarines, also positively contributed to export growth. While the export of hazelnuts and live cattle saw a decrease from 2017.

According to GeoStat primary data, 2018 was a productive year for Georgian fruit exports. Over the last year, hazelnut exports dropped by 13.5 million USD compared to 2017, though the export of almost all the other produce in the edible fruit and nuts(Harmonized System Codes 0801-0810) category increased. An upward trend in fruit (excluding hazelnuts) export has been observed since 2015, when the value equaled just 6.4 million USD, while its corresponding figure in 2018 exceeded 17.6 million USD. On a year-over-year basis, fruit (excluding hazelnut) export over the last year is up by more than half (20000 tons) of its 2017 value.

Exports were boosted significantly in the stone fruit (e.g., peaches, cherries, plums, etc.) and citrus fruit categories with 3.5 and 4.1 million USD, respectively, and thus securing a place for citrus fruit as one of Georgia’s top-10 export goods. While in absolute terms the gain in grape exports was somewhat moderate, in relative terms it outperformed most other fruit. Moreover in 2018, grape exports increased more than eightfold over the previous year, and reached its historic maximum value of 0.8 million USD (see the graph above). The changes in fruit export figures have been positive over the last year thanks to a good harvest. Although the official statistics for fruit production in 2018 are not yet available, according to the forecasts, 2018 was the one of the best years for citrus production, while the “rtveli” estimates were up by more than 20 thousand tons compared to 2017.