Land O'Lakes International Development is leading an innovative, demand-driven Safety and Quality Investment in Livestock (SQIL) project to improve food safety and quality within Georgia’s dairy and beef value chains. The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (via Food for Progress) and aims to reduce losses, improve food safety and quality from farm to fork, and to boost competitiveness, productivity, and trade within the Georgian dairy and beef market systems.

Results of the analyses are expected to contribute to the assessment of changes in trade patterns between Georgia and CAREC countries due to upcoming EU food safety regulations and standards as well as potential costs associated with those restrictions for both parties.

Geostat has released its GDP growth estimate for the first quarter of 2019. The Q1 growth stands at 4.7%, which is only 0.4 percentage points above the recent ISET-PI forecast. ISET-PI’s forecast of real GDP growth for the second quarter of 2019 stands at 4.7% - up from 4.6% in April.

BCI in the second quarter of 2019 has improved, reaching 27.0 index points, which is 4.4 index points higher than the previous quarter. The highest growth in BCI was observed in retail trade and manufacturing. In the case of retail trade, this advancement in BCI is mostly due to good past performance, while in manufacturing the driver is positive expectations.

In 2018, FDI in agriculture constituted 15.9 mln. USD. While the total FDI in 2018 was lower than in 2017, FDI in agriculture has significantly increased (by 28.2%). The highest FDI in agriculture was observed in the second quarter of 2018, while there was divestment (negative FDI) in the first quarter of 2018. The divestment was quite small and was followed by a significant increase in other quarters.