“Subsidization lasted far longer than it should have,” says Giorgi Margvelashvili, founder of Tbilvino, noting that prolonged state support has caused overproduction in Georgia’s wine sector. According to him, while subsidies were once necessary, keeping them in place for years created excess grape production and encouraged unsustainably high yields.
Margvelashvili says industry representatives had repeatedly advised the government to phase out subsidies earlier. “Georgian wine exports and demand have been growing, so the risk of quality grapes remaining unsold has been decreasing. The market would have balanced itself,” he noted.
In 2025, the government changed its approach: instead of subsidizing private companies buying grapes, it directed funds to a state-run “Harvest Management Company,” paying 1.5 GEL per kg of Saperavi, 1.2 GEL for other grapes, and 1 GEL for damaged grapes.
The 2025 harvest was a record 330,000 tons. Private wineries bought 170,000 tons, while the rest was purchased by the state, meaning more than half the harvest was financed with taxpayer money. This pushed the total subsidy cost to a historic high of 247.1 million GEL—five times more than in 2024.
