Winegrowers Earn GEL 310 million in 2020

The 2020 vintage and storing excessive harvest of grapes were key challenges amid the current pandemic.

Thanks to government support, over 280,000 tons of grapes were picked and sold out. Over 25,000 winegrowers have sold their grapes to winemaking companies and their incomes constituted GEL 310 million”, Georgian Agriculture Minister Levan Davitashvili noted when introducing the report on the 2020 performance.

"Thanks to the government subsidization program, thousands of winegrowers could sell 1 kg of Rkatsiteli for GEL 0.80. Without the government’s support, winegrowers would have to sell their product for only GEL 0.50 and they would not be able to raise even the prime cost. The Government has spent GEL 51 million on the subsidization program. The state-owned companies have also purchased excessive volumes of grapes, which would not be bought by the private sector.

The total value of this segment made up GEL 83 million. Without the government’s support, about 10,000 winegrowers would not have sold 94,000 tons of grapes”, Davitashvili noted.