On August 20, 2015, a strong hailstorm hit Georgia, devastating crops and infrastructure in eastern Kakheti. In Kvareli alone, the hailstorm destroyed about 1,300ha of Saperavi and 1,000ha of Rkatsiteli grapes, affecting more than 500 families. This was only one in a string of natural disasters striking Georgian farmers in recent years.

On the 21st of September, Salome Gelashvili, senior researcher at APRC, attended a workshop on the topic of “Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) of the M4P and Value Chain Projects supported by SDC in the South Caucasus” organized by the Swiss Cooperation Office for the South Caucasus.

Giving women voice in company management may prove beneficial for performance. For instance, according to an influential Catalyst report, The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Women’s Representation on Boards, “companies that achieve [gender] diversity and manage it well attain better financial results, on average, than other companies.”

ISET welcomes Professor Stephan von Cramon-Taubadel as a Visiting Professor at ISET until September 18th. Prof. Cramon-Taubadel is teaching Agricultural Economics I, an elective 3-credit course for second-year students.

The Georgian Lari has lost in value during the last couple of weeks, but, perhaps surprisingly, this has not yet translated into higher food prices. According to the latest results of ISET's Retail Food Price Index (FPI), the prices of food staples sold in the main Georgian supermarket chains have actually decreased by 0.6% during the last week of August (Aug 22-29).