On December 10, the parliament of Georgia approved the state budget for 2020. The budget includes allocations of around 14.4 billion GEL. Out of which, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture (MEPA) will receive 353 mln. GEL (2.4% of the total budget allocation).

The European Neighbourhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development in Georgia (ENPARD Georgia) was implemented in March 2013. The main goal of the ENPARD program is to reduce rural poverty in Georgia.1 The total budget of the program is 102 million EUR.

The state budget for 2019 is currently being discussed in Parliament and must be approved by the end of the year. According to the revised version (second version), the total budget will be around 13 billion GEL. Out of which, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture (MEPA) will get 332 million GEL (2.4% of the total budget).

Economic reforms announced in the run-up to the parliamentary elections in October 2016 raised concerns about whether Georgia was departing from its path of prudent fiscal policy. A reform of the corporate profit tax and increased infrastructure investment were driving expectations of a 6% of GDP budget deficit in 2017, endangering Georgia’s macroeconomic stability and its reputation with investors.

An average Georgian household spends more than 40% of its budget on food. Food prices are important determinants of access to food and stability of food security. In order to assess the stability of prices the paper looks at food price volatility for major commodities (not restricted to primary commodities only) consumed by Georgian households. Price volatility is important because both low and high prices affect different stakeholder groups (producers, consumers, exporters etc.) in different ways.