According to the latest foreign trade data, China is the main export market for Georgia, with commodities of USD 421.8 million, which is 42% more compared to the same period of the last year (January-August).
Giorgi Khishtovani, Director at PMC Research Center explains the advantages of the Chinese market and notes, that one of them is Free Trade Agreement.
“However, there are several other factors, including lack of regulations, which makes the Chinese market more interesting compared to the others. Despite the fact, that the EU market is also open for us, additional regulations make it more difficult to make exports there. The business does not want to take such risks. Correspondingly, China is more open in this case as it does not impose non-tariff additional restrictions and therefore the manufacturer is not forced to meet additional conditions to enter the market”, - Giorgi Khishtovani declares.
According to the head of PMC Research Center, the second advantage is that China is the largest country in the world in terms of population, which means that the market is extremely large and at the same time China is a country where a large part of the population has already come out of poverty.
“The income of the population is growing and the willingness of the population to spend more money on different types of products, services, is high. If we look at the wine market, we see that wine is becoming more and more consumed in China, which in itself increases the demand for Georgian wine”, - Kishtovani said.
Head of PMC Research Center notes, that China has a growing economy and it requires resources.
“There is a great demand for manganese in China, which is one of the most important export commodities for Georgia. So, China will take an advanced position compared to other countries in terms of manganese exports,"- explained Giorgi Khishtovani.