BCI in the third quarter of 2019 has deteriorated, dropping to 8.3 index points, which is 18.7 index points below the previous quarter. The largest reduction in BCI was observed in retail trade followed by the financial and construction industries. In these sectors, the decrease in BCI is driven by both decline in past performance and reduced expectations. On the contrary, agriculture is the sole industry where BCI increased.

The cultivation of berries is becoming increasingly popular among farmers in Georgia. The necessity of diversification in agricultural production and opportunities in the EU market have led farmers and the state to placing greater focus on the sector.

Agricultural production is associated with a variety of risks, including market, institutional, and production risks. An important production factor in agriculture is the weather. Its uncontrollable nature makes weather risk the prevailing risk to agricultural production. Farmers have various informal and formal means of transferring and mitigating these risks. Informal means include savings, diversification, off-farm activities, etc. The most common formal means of risk mitigation is insurance. Insurance is a contract that transfers the risk of financial loss from an individual or business to an insurance company.

In technological terms, there has never been a better time to be a small or medium size business owner: people can always get ahold of you and you can work wherever you need to. Creating an additional source of income catches people’s interests all over the world; as additional motivation, we often hear about the launch of yet another program directly helping these businesses, thus making it easier to become a start-upper. And here, the rhetorical question: “why not?!” pops into some people’s minds.

ISET Policy Institute, with the support of UNIDO, conducted a study to map emerging and potential clusters in Georgia with a focus on the manufacturing and agri-business sectors. The objective of the project was to enhance entrepreneurship and business sophistication by strengthening the capacities of government and local entities to develop and operate clusters and supporting companies directly with strategic investments and to better connect with diaspora groups, while also demonstrating the effectiveness of these strategies to businesses.