Koda: Sale of Eggs Reduced by 10 Million Daily

Zurab Chuchulashvili, director of the poultry company Koda, talks to Business Partner about the instability of the Georgian lari and its impact, saying that with the national currency depreciating daily, forecasting is difficult and investment projects impossible.

According to him, the company increased the prices of products (eggs, chicken) by about 15% in January 2021 due to the sharp depreciation of the lari, however, if the official exchange rate of the dollar exceeds the 3.5 mark, the company will have to revise prices again.

"In general, the situation is very difficult, the price of imported products is growing on a daily basis. Corn, wheat are imported from Russia, various vitamins and vaccines are imported from Europe, prices for food and other products are increasing daily. As for the packaging materials, it is directly tied to the dollar exchange rate. Therefore, we can not make forecasts and calculations for the long term, "- said Chuchulashvili.

According to him, the current situation was more or less reflected in the sales rate. Especially for chicken, whose sales rate is reduced by about 15% compared to the same period last year. Egg sales are reduced by 5-6%.

"Reducing the sales rate is not related to a 100% reduction in the purchasing power of the population. We lost about 8 million tourists last year. The same proportion this year. Therefore, we have already reduced production in this regard. This year, Koda and industry in general have reduced production by about 12-15%.

8 million tourists means about 10 million eggs daily. In the tourism sector, in the hotels, there are eggs for breakfast every morning, let alone other dairy products. We lost 10 million eggs sold daily. We have invested it in this year's production, "Chuchulashvili said.