There was 2.1% decrease in agricultural production in 2017 compared to the previous year. Production in the plant-growing sector declined by 0.4%, while animal production experienced a decrease of 3.8%. Lower production resulted in lower self-sufficiency ratios for most agricultural products.

On June 15, 2018, the Farmers’ Congress took place at hotel Betsy’s in Tbilisi. The congress discussed the opportunities and challenges of the EU-Georgia Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA), focusing on small and medium-size farmers and agricultural cooperatives.

On May 29th, the ISET’s Salome Gelashvili spoke at the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – Tbilisi Implementation Conference hosted by the Parliament of Georgia and held at the Radisson Blu Iveria Hotel from May 28th to 29th. She participated in a panel discussion on data for sustainable development.

According to the data for the first quarter of 2018, the number of livestock has increased in Georgia. The biggest increase was observed for the number of sheep and goats, which increased by 35.9%. Such a sharp rise might be explained by the increased demand from East Asian countries.

On May 25-27, the FREE Network Retreat was held in Minsk, Belarus. The Forum for Research on Eastern Europe and Emerging Economies (FREE) is a joint initiative of SITE (Stockholm), BEROC (Minsk), BICEPS (Riga), CEFIR (Moscow), KSE (Kyiv), and ISET (Tbilisi). All members meet annually and share their experiences.