“99% of Grape Growers Produced High-Quality Grapes”: Levan Mekhuzla

“Quality remains our priority, and there can be no compromise on it. If five truckloads of unripe grapes were delivered during this year’s harvest, our goal is for there to be none next year.

Today, growers can spend less, produce a smaller quantity of high-quality grapes and earn more,” said Levan Mekhuzla, Chairman of the National Wine Agency, while discussing the progress of the harvest.

He said farmers had known since February how grape deliveries to the state enterprise would be handled.

“The main reason for making minor changes to the differentiated pricing rules was the heavy rainfall and relatively cool summer. The vines flowered late, and the grapes began ripening late. This is one of the latest harvests in recent years. Growers were concerned that their grapes might not reach the required level of ripeness.

“The purpose of setting prices according to quality is to ensure that labour, costs and income are managed sensibly. The figures for grapes processed so far show that the reform is working: 99% of growers produced high-quality grapes, and only 0.5% of the grapes delivered were of poor quality,” Mekhuzla said.