Lasha Rizhamadze, president of the Distributors Business Association, believes regulating only the relationship between local producers and supermarket chains will not address the challenges in Georgia’s market. He was commenting on the government’s planned bill on unfair trading practices in the food supply chain.
Rizhamadze noted that local production accounts for no more than 5% of products on retail shelves, while around 95% are imported. He therefore argued that regulation should cover the entire supply chain, including producers, importers, distributors and retailers, rather than focusing only on local producers and supermarket chains.
According to Rizhamadze, the private sector is currently not informed about the exact version of the bill. He said all relevant parties should be involved in developing the legislation to ensure a healthy competitive environment and more stable prices for consumers.
Parliament’s special commission on prices previously found significant imbalances in bargaining power across the supply chain, with producers and distributors bearing various commercial and marketing costs. Its recommendations included restricting unfair trading practices, standardizing commercial relations and payment terms, and limiting discriminatory markups, unfair fines and fees. Rizhamadze said he hopes these recommendations will be reflected in the final legislation.
