The Acting Minister of Environment Protection and Agriculture presented the annual activity report to the public.
Levan Davitashvili spoke about the agricultural anti-crisis plan which was developed to support farmers and said that 300 million GEL was allocated to neutralize the impact of the pandemic. Subsidizing the cost of agricultural goods, from which more than 172,000 farmers have already benefited from the program. The amount of the accrued subsidy exceeds 30 million GEL According to Davitashvili, the sum of grape subsidies reached 51 million GEL this year.
The chairwoman of the Georgian Farmers' Association, Nino Zambakhidze, told bm.ge, that the Ministry of Agriculture deserves criticism for the implemented subsidy in a number of directions during the non-pandemic conditions.
"I cannot praise the state for subsidizing wine and grapes because all industries need subsidies by that logic. I think it's time to get out of this subsidy scheme. Other mechanisms must exist that give SMEs access to financial capital, education, and diversification on the international market- not the occupant Russian market only. There are strategic directions that the state should work on," - Nino Zambakhidze said.
