Grape Harvest ‘Huge Success’ – Minister Says
Over 70% of the grape harvest, which is 57,800 tons, has already been processed in Georgia’s eastern region of Kakheti, Petre Tsiskarishvili, the agriculture minister, told the cabinet on October 10.
He said both the harvest and the fight against falsified wine production were ongoing, with “huge success.”
The grape harvest has become part of a political standoff between the authorities and the opposition, with the latter accusing the government of a failure to provide adequate measures to help winegrowers suffering from the Russian embargo. Most Georgian wine-producing companies have cut production due to the embargo, leading to low prices for grapes and even difficulties in selling the harvest.
A few weeks ago Tbilisi-based Imedi TV (co-owned by Badri Patarkatsishvili) showed footage of a winegrower in Kakheti, angry over a failure to sell his harvest at a reasonable price, cutting down his vines. Officials responded by claiming that the scene had been staged by the TV station, which, some alleged, had paid the farmer GEL 1,500.
Giorgi Arveladze, the economy minister, said that the “staged show” was part of Patarkatsishvili’s “propaganda” to plant hopelessness among the people.
Speaking at the meeting with Minister Tsiskarishvili on October 9, President Saakashvili said that the grape harvest was “an issue of enormous economic and political importance for Georgia.”
Saakashvili has many times in the past alleged that the Russian ban on Georgian wine is aimed at causing public discontent, particularly in Kakheti, home to over 60% of Georgian vineyards, and ultimately at creating unrest and destabilization.
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