Back in the summer of 2021, the Government of Georgia (GoG) worked on a 10-year strategic framework for different sectors of the economy including agriculture. In July 2021, Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced the targets for the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture (MEPA) under the government’s 10-year-strategic framework.

Food Loss and Waste (FLW) is one of the critical issues related to waste management in Georgia. A large amount of food still suitable for human consumption is wasted by Food Business Operators (FBOs) and large food retailers in particular due to the packaging or quality issues, expiration date, excess supply and consumption habits, which results in significant economic losses for these FBOs.

For the 4th quarter of 2021, business confidence in Georgia decreased slightly (by 5.8 index points) and reached 30.6. The highest decrease in business confidence is observed in construction (-21.0), service (-15.3), and agriculture (-8.8) sectors. A negative change in BCI for Q4 2021 was driven by worsened future expectations and past performance.

In the past year and a half since the pandemic began, we’ve all become familiar with phrases such as “supply chain disruption,” “turbulence and volatility in international markets,” and “in these unprecedented times,” often used to preface news about pandemic-related food price increases across the globe.

Kakheti is one Georgian region that is economically dependent on agriculture. According to data from the Agriculture and Rural Development Strategy 2021-2027, 40.1% of Georgia’s agricultural lands are within Kakheti, where its largest areas are arable lands, pastures, and vineyards, making it the leading region in the production of cereals, livestock, and wine. In 2020, wine production in Kakheti alone accounted for 75.5% of all the wine produced throughout the country.