Agriculture in Figures – Georgia and the World
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), about 1 billion people are engaged in the agricultural sector, including 20 million persons in the CIS space, 12 million in Aastern and Central Europe, 22 million in highly-developed countries, 450 million in China, and 600 million in Africa.
China is a leader in terms of revenues from the agricultural sector. Every year, this country sells agricultural products worth 1.88 trillion USD. India ranks second with 4,134 billion USD; the USA comes third, with 290 billion USD. American exports mainly consists of meat and milk products. Indonesia is mainly specialized in the export of coffee, raw rubber, cacao and species. In terms of revenues from the agricultural sector, Indonesia comes fourth with 127 billion USD. Brazil ranks fifth with 110 billion USD. Considerable revenues from the agriculture sector are reported in Nigeria too – 106 billion USD. Pakistan ranks 7th with 63 billion USD. Turkey ranks with 8th with 62 billion USD. Argentina ranks 9th with 59 billion USD, and Japan is tenth with 51 billion USD.
According to FAO experts, organic agriculture shows significant development. According to IFOAM, the market for organic products exceeded 90 billion EUR. The USA is reported as the largest market, with 40 billion USD. Germany ranks second, with 10 billion EUR. France comes third, with 7.9 billion EUR. Switzerland is a leader in the volume of organic food products – 288 EUR per capita. The figure makes up 278 EUR in Germany and 237 EUR in Sweden.
As for Georgia, it should be noted that over the past few years negative trade balance between exports and imports of organic agricultural products is shrinking. According to the 2018 report, the negative trade balance between exports and imports of agricultural products made up 394 million USD, down 0.4% compared to 2017. Considering that the 2012 trade deficit was 753 million USD, then over the past 6 years the negative balance has almost halved.
In 2018, Georgia exported products worth 959.2 million USD. According to Geostat, the national statistics service of Georgia, products were exported to 96 countries, and Russia ranks first with a 25% share. Azerbaijan ranks second with 16%. EU is third with 15%. According to official statistics, exports of agricultural products in 2018 increased by 67.3 million USD compared to 2017, up 9.2% year on year.
As for imports, Georgia imported 1.3 billion USD of products to Georgia. Russia remains a leader in terms of the import market, with a 23% ratio. The EU ranks second, with a 22% ratio. Ukraine is third, with 21% and Turkey is fourth with 10%.
It is interesting that despite export growth, the ratio of agriculture sector in Georgia’s total GDP is declining, and the ratio made up 7.7% in 2018, down from 8% from 2017.
As for the number of agriculture sector workers, about 40% of the workforce in Georgia is employed in the agriculture sector. Based on this figure, Georgia is ranked beside Vietnam, Haiti, India, Kenya, Morocco, Pakistan, Nigeria and Ghana. As to the neighboring countries this indicator made up 37% in Azerbaijan, 33% in Armenia, 19% in Turkey and 8% in the Russian Federation.
According to World Bank indicators, in 2018 the average indicator of the agriculture sector employees was 26%. This figure is below 5% in developed countries.