Wheat market diversification in Georgia

In the light of Russia’s devastating wildfires, the loss of wheat production and its temporary halt on exports, Georgia has had to re-think its wheat production strategies. Almost 60% of Georgia’s wheat is imported from Russia, with the remaining 35% from Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Georgia produces only 5% of its own wheat. In previous months, the Government of Georgia planned to increase wheat production from 5% to 30-35% by 2012. Now the situation is becoming more urgent as the cost of bread continues to rise.

President Mikheil Saakashvili has assigned the Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture to provide a government action plan on wheat market diversification within a week. President Saakashvili has now called for an end to wheat dependency on a single supplier and a single source, and an end to the reflection of bread prices on price fluctuations internationally.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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