Newspaper: Business Owners ‘Forced to Buy Grape Harvest’

Ahead of the grape harvest the authorities are “forcing” small and medium business owners to purchase grapes from farmers, the Georgian daily Rezonansi reported on September 1.

As Georgian wine-producing companies are cutting production due to the Russian economic embargo, wine-growers in Georgia may face a problem in selling their harvest. To tackle the problem, President Saakashvili last year requested leading Georgian businessmen to each buy at least 10 tonnes from farmers in order to lessen the impact of the embargo.

This year, Rezonansi writes, the authorities have targeted small and medium business owners, who have complained that the forced purchase of grapes would be an unreasonable burden for their businesses.

Davit Usupashvili, the leader of opposition Republican Party, told the newspaper that the authorities were trying to deal with farmer discontent.

Davit Narmania of the Georgian Young Economists Association (GYEA) told Rezonansi that the authorities had failed to address the problems facing the wine industry.

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