ISET-PI launched the Retail Food Price Index in July 2015. The project is implemented thanks to the cooperation of the largest Georgian retail chains including Carrefour, Goodwill, Fresco, and SPAR. While data from the individual retailers are confidential, the average of prices from all stores can be combined to create a general FPI, as well as FPIs for individual products.

An average Georgian household spends more than 40% of its budget on food. It, therefore, stands to reason that Georgian consumers are quite sensitive to food prices, which may be very good news considering recent developments in global commodity markets. According to the latest World Bank’s Food Price Watch, “international food prices declined by 14% between August 2014 and May 2015, sliding into a five-year low.”

The main objective of this project was to analyse the predicted potential for Georgia to specialize in the production of various agricultural goods. APRC assisted the German Economic Team within this project with regards to: searching, collecting and summarizing data, reviewing existing literature to study the potential of agricultural goods which have a relative comparative advantage compare to other.

While Georgia never faced anything like a wartime food crisis, the agricultural policies implemented by the Georgian Dream coalition government in 2013-2015 did not lack in ambition, seeking to make up for more than a decade of “active neglect” of Georgia’s smallholder agriculture by the Saakashvili administration. In this piece, we take a critical look at one of the first government initiatives, the Agricultural Card Program, introduced in February 2013.

Until 2012, Georgia has been encouraging foreigners to purchase land, bring modern technology and management to the country’s ailing agricultural sector. On the one hand, Georgia’s extremely liberal approach was a boon for investment by global food industry giants such as Ferrero (4,000ha hazelnut plantation in Samegrelo) and Hipps (growing of organic apple and production of aroma and apple concentrate in Shida Kartli).