“The GEL 0.30 Price Applied to Grapes Unsuitable for Winemaking”

“Georgia is the birthplace of wine. This is a source of pride, but it also gives us a responsibility to ensure that Georgian wine is competitive. Wine begins in the vineyard, and the grapes used to produce it must be of high quality,” said Levan Mekhuzla, Chairman of the National Wine Agency, while assessing the ongoing harvest.

He discussed the rules governing grape purchase prices differentiated by quality.

“The GEL 0.30 price applied to grapes unsuitable for winemaking, which account for only 0.5% of the total harvest processed. We are talking about unripe produce rather than grapes suitable for wine production.

“When the state purchased grapes of all quality levels at the same price, this approach created the wrong incentives for growers. They no longer took proper care of their vineyards because they could sell grapes of any quality at the same price. Differentiated pricing also influences the approach of private companies, which assess growers’ grapes according to quality,” said Levan Mekhuzla.