“State Subsidization Program is an Excellent Opportunity to Rapidly Import Wheat in Big Volumes” – Levan Silagava

In his interview for Business Partner Levan Silagava, president of the Georgian Producers Federation, has appraised the state subsidization program and the domestic production promotion efforts.

“The state subsidization program was prepared in force-majeure situation. We do not back subsidization programs, in general, however, food safety is the relevant program for not only Georgia, but the whole world. In addition to the current challenges, we do not know, when this heavy period will end. The country is trying to set certain restrictions and limitations.

We have two key components: less subsidization for imports and keeping a fixed price that should not exceed 51 GEL. We think this is a good program to import wheat in bog volumes and rapidly. Wheat import restrictions from Russia, from Ukraine and Romania will run through July 1, however, we will have the first harvest by that period and the country will  easily overcome the challenges.

Wheat is one of the key components of the food safety strategy. Georgia is a land-poor country, however, knowledge, technologies, financial resources and agro inductance will enable to meet even the minimum domestic demands. One hectare yields 2 tons of products on average, while in Europe and the world the figure makes up 5 tons. Consequently, thanks to knowledge, technologies and agro insurance we will come up with European indicators”, Levan Silagava noted.

We remind you that the state subsidization program is to subsidize potential beneficiaries for imports of wheat to Georgia. The subsidy amount per ton of wheat does not exceed 40 USD (equivalent in GEL); As part of the program, the state will subsidize imports of 2,000 to 40,000 tons of wheat. The program will cover imports from April 17 (the resolution enforcement date) through May 20.