In 2020, Georgia purchased 4,198.1 tons of buckwheat from 4 countries, for which $ 3.1 million was exported. This number is slightly lower than the pre-pandemic rate. In 2019, the value of 6,995.4 tons of buckwheat imported to Georgia amounted to $ 3.2 million.
According to official statistics, Russia is the main importer of the product, although in 2019 buckwheat was imported from Kazakhstan, and in the last 2 years we were buying it in small quantities in Ukraine and China.
It should be noted that despite the decline in imports, imports of buckwheat from the main import market - Russia - increased in 2020 ($ 2.5 million in 2019). Import markets look like this:
1. Russia - $ 3.0 million, 4,175.2 tons;
2. Ukraine - 20.1 thousand dollars, 22 tons;
3. Poland - 1.9 thousand dollars, 0.7 tons;
4. France - 1.1 thousand dollars, 0.2 tons;
2. Ukraine - 20.1 thousand dollars, 22 tons;
3. Poland - 1.9 thousand dollars, 0.7 tons;
4. France - 1.1 thousand dollars, 0.2 tons;
In 2019, imports were also made from Kazakhstan (585 thousand dollars), China (82.5 thousand dollars) and Ukraine (29.9 thousand dollars).
Significantly, buckwheat imports increased in the first quarter of 2021, although the increase is mainly due to product value. The value of product imports increased by 23.2% compared to January-March last year and amounted to 701.7 thousand dollars (569.6 thousand dollars in the first quarter of 2020), while the volume of purchased products decreased by 5.4% to 830.5 tons (878.2 tons).
In January-March this year, Georgia imported most of the product from Russia (701.4 thousand dollars, 830.3 tons), and in small quantities, we bought buckwheat in Belarus (0.2 thousand dollars, 0.1 tons) and Poland (0.1 thousand dollars, 0.1 tons).
Recall that Russia temporarily banned the export of buckwheat to the domestic market for food safety in the summer months.
