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.

The cooperative movement in Georgia started back in 2013 with EU support, through the launching of the ENPARD project, a major component of which is the development of agricultural cooperatives across Georgia.

On 14 July 2017, ENPARD implementing organization CARE and its partner ISET Policy Institute (ISET-PI), in cooperation with other ENPARD implementing partners (Oxfam, Mercy Corps, People in Need, and UNDP Adjara) presented the results of the ENPARD Cooperatives Survey, which assesses the performance of EU-supported cooperatives for the period 2014-2016.

APRC will carry out an assessment of enterprise performance of agricultural cooperatives after conducted training and development programs, and will identify further steps and areas of the improvement.

Back in 2013, the Government of Georgia (GoG) approved a new law entitled “On Agricultural Cooperatives.” The primary goal of this legislation was to support agriculture and rural development in the country by strengthening agricultural cooperatives. Since then, agricultural cooperatives have been springing up like mushrooms; 13,000 farmers have already been registered in 1,500 cooperatives. In order to strengthen their capacity, donors led by the European Union have been providing financial assistance as well as trainings and advisory services to cooperatives and their members.