Former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and current agribusiness entrepreneur Gela Khanishvili is criticizing the newly updated rules for issuing subsidized agrocredits. The changes come as part of the State Agro Co-Financing Program, which will launch on July 1 and introduce revised lending conditions.
Under the new model, the interest subsidy will be reduced from 11% to 8%, and the subsidization period will drop from 48 to 36 months. Khanishvili argues that a three-year term is “inadequately short,” noting that most agricultural activities—such as livestock, poultry and orchard farming—require long-term financial support.
“Three years is an inadequately small amount of support,” Khanishvili says. He is currently involved in agribusiness and developing peach orchards in Shindisi.
He also questions the program’s requirement that borrowers first obtain Ministry approval for their business plans before approaching banks for subsidized loans. According to him, this may complicate access to financing, though he says the full impact will only be clear once the government publishes detailed documentation.
Overall, Khanishvili believes the updated model does not align with the current needs of the agricultural sector, emphasizing that reduced support periods fail to reflect the realities of multi-year agricultural businesses.
