Eport Import

Georgia’s Export and Import in 2017

by Business AbroadBusiness in TerritoriesBusiness MarketInvestment OpportunitiesLatest PostsNewsTrade Opportunities

According to the data released by the state statistics office of Georgia, in 2017 Import reached USD 7.9 billion, while exports of Georgia was USD 2.7 billion. It was largest figures for the last three years both for export and import. The lowest rate of export from Georgia was USD 2.1 billion in 2016.

The trade turnover with the EU-member states stood at USD 2.84 billion in 2017 and USD 2.78 billion in 2016, a 2% increase compared to 2016. For the last three year’s maximum rate of import was in 2016, USD 2.21 billion and export in 2017, USD 0.64 billion.

Horizontal bar chart shows statistics of export and import of Georgia, between 2012 and 2017. Values are shown in billions of US dollar.

Additionally, in 2017 Trade turnover with the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was USD 3.54 billion, while in 2015 and 2016 was USD 2.8 billion and USD 2.71 billion. Georgian exports to CIS countries were up by 60% y/y to USD 1.18 billion and imports increased by 19.2% to USD 2.36 billion.

 

Georgia’s largest trade partners in 2017:

  1. Turkey – USD 1.58 billion
  2. Russia – USD 1.18 billion
  3. China – USD 1.18 billion
  4. Azerbaijan – USD 1.18 billion
  5. Ukraine – USD 569 million
  6. Armenia – USD 489 million
  7. Germany – USD 478 million
  8. The United States – USD 389 million
  9. Bulgaria – USD 334 million
  10. Italy – USD 286 million

 

Georgia’s 2017 top trading partners by exports:

  1. Russia USD 394 million
  2. Azerbaijan USD 272 million
  3. Turkey USD 216 million
  4. Armenia USD 208 million
  5. China USD 207 million
  6. Ukraine USD 124 million
  7. The United States USD 121 million
  8. Iran USD 76 million
  9. Switzerland USD 71 million
  10. Uzbek USD 64 million

 

Georgia’s 2017 top trading partners by imports:

  1. Turkey – USD 2.37 billion
  2. Russia – USD 788 million
  3. China – USD 732 million
  4. Azerbaijan – USD 609 million
  5. Ukraine – USD 455 million
  6. Germany – USD 433 million
  7. Armenia – USD 281 million
  8. The United States – USD 267 million
  9. Italy – USD 217 million
  10. Romania – USD 191 million

 

Georgia’s 2017 top exported products:

  1. Copper ores and concentrates USD 419 million
  2. Ferroalloys – USD 306 million
  3. Re-export of motor cars – USD 234 million
  4. Wine – USD 170 million;
  5. Medicines – USD 140 million
  6. Non-denatured ethyl alcohol and spirits – USD 126 million
  7. Mineral waters – USD 95 million;
  8. Hazelnuts – USD 83 million
  9. Chemical fertilizers – USD 76 million
  10. Raw or semi-processed gold – USD 70 million

 

Georgia’s 2017 top imported products:

  1. Oil and oil products – USD 696 million
  2. Cars – USD 474 million
  3. Petroleum gases – USD 350 million
  4. Medicines – USD 346 million
  5. Copper ores and concentrates – USD 338 million
  6. Mobile and other wireless phones – USD 204 million
  7. Cigarettes – USD 102 million
  8. Wheat – USD 98 million
  9. Automatic data processing machines – USD 96 million
  10. Trucks – USD 72 million
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This year Georgia broke record in wine export

by Business AbroadBusiness MarketLatest PostsNewsTrade Opportunities

Georgia is one of the oldest wine regions in the world and wine export plays big role for the development of the Georgian economy.

Export of Georgian wine reached a record in 2017. The Agriculture Minister, Levan Davitashvili said that more than 70m bottles of Georgian wine were sold in different countries of the world.

According to the Georgian wine agency, in 2017 January-November it is sold production of $154.8 million and the revenue increased by 49 percent while export rose by 54 percent from the same period in 2016.

Over the period of January-August, the leaders among the wine brands named by the place of origin are: Kindzmarauli – 7 752 470 bottles, Mukuzani – 2 478 937, Tsinandali – 1 959 406, Akhasheni – 861 185, Khvanchkara – 451 034, Tvishi – 172 358 and Napareuli – 121 986

China played big role for our economy by signing a free trade agreement between Georgia and China. Between January and November 6 736 081 bottles of Georgian wine was exported to China.

Top 3 countries Georgia exported wine in January-November 2017 are:

  1. Russia – 43,903,947 bottles
  2. Ukraine – 7,660,334 bottles
  3. China –  6, 736 081 bottles

“Wine export exceeds 70 million bottles in January-November of current year. By the end of the year, this indicator will increase, which means that in 2017 exported wine from Georgia will have a record number for the last 30 years,” said Giorgi Samanishvili, the Chairman of the National Wine Agency.

Totally, Georgia gained $222,4 million from the export of wine, brandy and chacha, which is a 50 percent increase compared to the same period of the 2016.

BUSINESS GEORGIA has created for its foreigner readers a special video below about the Georgian wine, which provides 10 important facts why our wine is so special for the world.

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BITTER-SWEET TASTE OF SUCCESS

by Business AbroadLatest PostsNews

BITTER-SWEET TASTE OF SUCCESS

 

Georgian-Polish love story which came dreams true. Some useful recommendations about difficulties and challenges in restaurant business

 

Business Georgia is taking on the task of researching and providing information and interesting details about the burgeoning Georgian restaurant business as well as reporting on the rapidly growing popularity of Georgian gastronomy abroad; particularly in Poland.

In recent years, Georgian cuisine has become popular in many countries. According to the result of National Geographic- inquires, in 2016 year, Georgia hold second place in gastronomic tourism. We should note that a good kitchen is a visiting card for any country and also to increase tourism potential is mostly depend on the gastronomy. Because, restaurant business has a potential to become important factor for country’s positive image.

The word “restaurant” comes from French verb “restaurer” which means “to restore.” In early times, restaurants were a place for rest and recuperation. Later, restaurants changed theirs approach and purpose and today, they are places for relaxation, enjoying oneself and, of course, eating and drinking.

Poland is an interesting and diverse country as a geographical, cultural and economical. Polish economy on the one hand stands on agriculture, on the other hand on coal, energy, metallurgical and machinery industries. Cooperation between Poland and Georgia has a huge potential. This is determined by both historical and contemporary factors, both counties have a similar problem of state and society development. Especially should be noted perspective of  enhancing cooperation in economic, business, tourism and education sphere.

Kitchen as Theater and Business

“Over the last five years,” said Vasil Gureshidze, “the kitchen has become an art for me, the kitchen was like a little theater where chefs are like actors and after serving up their meals, they expect ovations. I was always interested to speak with those who ate the dishes I prepared. I asked them what they liked or what they did not like and their satisfaction was like applause for me.”

Three months ago, Vasil Gureshidze’s dream came true when he opened his own restaurant. He attributes a great deal of the success to his wife who taught him the Polish language and helped him along the way with everything. Now, his main motivator is his young son who was born a few months ago.

He says that restaurant business is quite difficult. Firstly, there are financial issues, hiring new staff and creating menus. He adds that it is important to have a good accountant, observe all of the formalities, such as licenses, and pay attention to architectural design. Vasil Gureshidze’s G e o r g i a n restaurant, called Mada, is located in Warsaw. There, visitors can try traditional Georgian dishes such as khinkali, mtsvadi and khachapuri, which is very popular, described on the menu as “Georgian pizza.”

Also featured on the menu are prasi with walnut paste, carrot satsivi, tabaka with blackberries, chkmeruli, gebjalia, chakapuli with veal and Georgian shoti bread. Mada is the first restaurant in Poland where people can try Georgian dishes. Even though the restaurant was only opened a short time ago, Gureshidze is already boasting a steady clientele. On-line ordering, take-away service, banquet services and open-air dining are all a part of Mada’s services.

 

 

 

Perspectives of Economic Relationships Between Georgia and China

by Business AbroadEconomic EnvironmentForeigners in BusinessInternational EnvironmentInvestment OpportunitiesLatest PostsNewsTrade Opportunities

Perspectives of Economic Relationships Between Georgia and China

On June 9, Georgia celebrates 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations with China.  BUSINESS GEORGIA offers an exclusive interview with Mr. Ji Yanchi, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Georgia.

“Free Trade Agreement” with China –  What is the significance of this agreement and what positive changes may it bring for both China and Georgia?

In September 2015, then prime minister Garibashvili took part in the World Economic Forum in Dalian, and held a fruitful meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, they agreed to launch the negotiations on free trade agreement. In December 2015, the negotiations began. In February 2016 the first official delegation from China arrived. The FTA negotiations lasted for 7 months and ended in October through the utmost efforts of both parties. In October 2016, Chinese Minister of Commerce, Gao Hucheng  visited Georgia, during which he met with prime minister Kvirikashvili and made a joint statement on finalizing the FTA. At present the most important thing is to ratify this agreement as early as possible. We hope these legal procedures can be completed by the end of the year thereby make the FTA come into force officially. The FTA will deepen the economic and commercial cooperation and will bring our bilateral relations closer. Through this agreement Georgia will be able to export its products to China – a market of 1.4 billion customers. It is estimated that exports from Georgia to China will increase by 33.6 % while exports from China to Georgia by 6.7 %. It is also noteworthy that there are some special articles in the contract, which were not included in similar treaties before.  For example, there is an annex about trade and transportation service. It is somewhat customized to Georgia’s aspiration to be a corridor connecting Europe and Asia.

Why Georgia became one of the priority country for China?

Georgia is an important country along the “Silk Road Economic Belt” for the fact that it is a transit corridor connecting Europe and Asia as well as a transit country in trade. This is why we added annex about trade service into the FTA. Georgia has the potential to use all the resources to the full and China is ready to help at any time.

How China and Georgia cooperate in the financial sphere, is it intended to open new commercial banks in Georgia?

The Free Trade Agreement promotes cooperation between the two countries in the sphere of finance, Nowadays Chinese company “Hualing Group” has bought Basisbank, which operates successfully. It is also known that a Chinese company signed cooperation memorandums with Georgia on establishing the Georgian Development Bank and Georgian construction fund. I believe this will be a great stimulus for the development of Georgia’s economy, for investment growth and for projects implementation. The Chinese government supports Chinese companies to invest in Georgia.

Is it planned to establish partnership in energy sector?

In fact, the energy cooperation between our countries has a long history. Back in 2000, a Chinese energy company built a hydropower plant in the Pankisi Gorge, which is the first foreign invested power plant after the independence of Georgia. This plant contributed a lot to the economic development of the region, and it still operates well. Currently Chinese companies actively participate in Georgian energy sector. Our cooperation in the sphere of energy is constantly growing, Chinese companies have a desire to make more investments, especially in the construction of hydro power plants, since China is leading in this area, with the most medium and small size hydro plants in the world. China also has the largest electrical grid in the world. In this regard, our cooperation can bring great benefits to Georgia.

Which other spheres and fields will be attractive to Chinese investors in Georgia?

It is interesting to promote the trade-related service sector. Recently many Chinese companies are interested in the Georgian market. We see increasing number of representatives coming to study the market. Besides wine, mineral water and mines, agriculture and energy sector are of great potential. Particularly, cooperation in renewable energy vehicle sector. Another important field is tourism, as you know, Georgia has rich resources in this regard. After signing the FTA, Ministry of Commerce of China issued a permit to open China-Georgia bilateral tourism companies in Beijing , Shanghai and Tianjin. In my opinion, the society is stable in Georgia, and the investment and tax policies are really favourable. If the central and local government of Georgia could implement these policies into practice, it is promising that more Chinese investments and tourists will be attracted to Georgia.

Is there any plan for high level visit from China to Georgie in the nearest future?

Organizing exchange visits is absolutely important, but it needs preliminary preparation in advance. High level visits are more meaningful only when you have big cooperation projects in hands. Currently the Chinese government is implementing greenhouse project, which completely works on solar energy, we want to make it an exemplary project and we hope similar greenhouse farming could be implemented in Georgia in the near future. This will bring great benefits to the country, helping change it from  fruit and vegetable importer to exporter. In Western Georgia, Chinese companies are working hard for the revival of Georgian tea-growing industry. The first batch of tea was harvested this year. If the tea industry in Georgia could regain its past glory, tea will become a main agriculture exporting product of Georgia. The potential in the tea industry is huge. I think if the aforementioned projects could be successfully implemented, this will become a good example of the “Silk road Economic Belt” and will contribute not only to deepen agriculture cooperation but also to develop relations in the field of culture. As you may know, Mr. Liu Junzhou – a Chinese tea expert brought tea seedlings to Georgia in the late nineteenth century, thus, tea has a historical and cultural significance to our countries. Mr. Liu is the envoy of China-Georgia friendship. Hopefully, with the support of tea farming, we can write a new chapter for our historical and cultural connections.

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WORLD’S FIRST BLUE WINE GOES ON SALE

by Business AbroadTrade Opportunities

As reported by Olive Press, six entrepreneurs in their ‘20s have invented Gik, a bright blue wine from Bierzo in northwest Spain made with red and white grapes.

The wine took two years to develop in collaboration with the University of the Basque Country and Azti Tecnalia, the food research department of the Basque Government.

A base wine is created from red and white grapes, then anthocyanin and indigo pigments are added to turn it blue and the wine is softened with sweeteners. Its makers recommend serving the 11.5% abv Gik cold due to its sweetness. The unconventional drop is aimed at younger consumers seeking something different from their wine experience.

“We wanted to create an innovative and daring product in tune with the changing world – the wine industry needs a little revolution,” a spokesman told Olive Press.

The website describes the colour blue as representing “movement, innovation, fluidity, change and infinity”. The first batch has gone on sale for €10 a bottle via the Gik website and the plan is to make the wine at different wineries across Spain depending on demand. None of the six founders have any previous winemaking experience.