ISET is pleased to welcome its new employee Gigla Mikautadze in the capacity of Deputy Head of the Private Sector Development Research Centre. His responsibilities include leading the centre in studying and formulating effective policy options for strengthening the private sector and promoting market competitiveness. In addition, he will work to promote the engagement of the private sector in policy discussions, as well as assist the research centre in its goal to increase the capacity of the private and the public sector in development.

The Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement between Georgia and the EU, brought into effect in 2014, was hailed at the time by many as being of great importance to Georgian manufacturers and food/beverage producers. Yet, skeptics commented that 1) Georgia had already had more than 7000 articles duty-free and quota-free under the pre-existing GSP+ trade terms granted by the EU for many years, and 2) very few exporters had been able to take advantage of these concessions.

Spring brings happiness in peoples’ lives not only because of the brighter days but also because of the increased supply of many seasonal products. This is reflected in the production cost of Khachapuri. In April 2016, the national average cost of preparing one standard Imeretian khachapuri went down to 3.16 GEL, 3.2% lower compared to March 2016 (but 6.9% higher compared to April 2015).

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.

In March 2016, the average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri declined to 3.27 GEL, which is 5% lower month-on-month (that is compared to February 2016), and 6.9% higher year-on-year (compared to March 2015).