As the Minister explained, it is important that locally produced wheat and barley will be sold only in the domestic market. 

“Despite the fact that Georgia is completely dependent on wheat imports (500 thousand tons annually) and cannot export due to small production, the current situation creates a risk that a certain amount of wheat will be exported from the country.

The barley produced in Georgia is exported to Iraq and Iran. Barley, a food resource in the field of livestock, poultry and pig breeding, is important to be sold only in the local market at this stage. In the current year, the forecast harvest of barley is within 60 thousand tons. As of today, more than 2.5 thousand tons have already been exported.

Considering all of the above, the government made a decision to ban the export of wheat and barley from Georgia from July 4, 2022 to July 4, 2023. At this stage, the restrictions do not apply to the export of corn. The Ministry of Environment Protection and Agriculture held a number of meetings with wheat and barley producers and listened to their positions. As the producers say, the local market, based on the existing demand, will fully absorb the harvest produced in the country", - said Otar Shamugia.

As for statistics, in 2021 barley worth of 2,357 tons ($612,000) was exported from Georgia (local export). Out of these, the largest quantity of barley was sold:

in Iraq - 1,195 tons (worth of 337.6 thousand dollars);

in Turkey - 733 tons (worth of 169.3 thousand dollars);

in Saudi Arabia - 159 tons (worth of 40.9 thousand dollars).

As for the export of local wheat, the Georgian wheat was sold in 3 countries last year:

in Armenia - 1,468 tons ($365.4 thousand);

in Turkey - 49.4 tons ($16.7 thousand);

in Ukraine - 40 tons ($10.8 thousand).

In total, in 2021, 1,557 tons of wheat with a total value of 393 thousand dollars were exported from Georgia.