Underdevelopment of the land market is a major obstacle behind the development of Georgian agriculture. A significant number of unregistered plots of land prevent land consolidation and increases in agricultural productivity. According to the Ministry of Justice, as of February 2019, in the framework of the land registration reform, since 2016, there are 543,139 citizens who have registered 130,943 ha of land; 1,431 legal entities which have registered 1,793 ha; and 34,131 state entities with 169,241 ha of registered land.
On April 3rd, 2015, the government of Georgia adopted the Technical Regulation on Milk and Dairy Products that was enacted on August 1st, 2015. The technical regulation aims “to determine unified principles for regulating production, processing, and distribution of milk and dairy products as well as the protection of customers’ rights”. It provides definitions of terms “milk and dairy products”.
On February 26, 2019, the APRC participated in a meeting on sustainable land management and green agriculture in Georgia. The event was organized by REC Caucasus and gathered more than 60 participants from the public and private sectors. The representatives of different organizations (e.g., GIZ, IFAD, FAO), as well as a number of farmers, shared information on their projects and activities related to climate-smart agriculture and sustainable land management in Georgia.
Dairy production in Georgia is a hot topic right now. Over the last couple of years, new state regulations have been adopted in this sector. The most widely discussed recent change in regulations prohibits the use of milk powder in cheese production. This regulation was adopted in 2015 but was amended in June of 2017 in order to better serve consumer interests.
Georgia’s food & agricultural exports almost hit their 1 billion USD threshold, attaining a historic maximum since independence – and that certainly sounds like something to celebrate! However, the respective imports have also increased and broken records. As a result, the trade balance (the difference between export and import) remained virtually unchanged at (-394) million USD.