As the local representative of the Social Justice Center stated, the farmers have harvested their crops for more than a month, but they are unable to sell them, nor can they export them.
The center says that the sale of potatoes has become one of the main barriers to the development of agriculture in Akhalkalaki.
However, at this time, the import of potatoes into Georgia is significantly increasing, while the export of local products is decreasing. According to the data published by the National Statistics Office of Georgia (GEOSTAT), in January-November 2023, only 4,723 tons of potatoes worth $1,281 million were exported from Georgia, while the volume of imports amounted to $7,685 million, 22,998 tons. As a result, it turns out that the import volume of potatoes into Georgia is almost 5 times higher than the export volume.
The largest amount of potatoes was imported to Georgia from Russia this year - in particular, 8,395 tons of potatoes worth $2,261 million were imported from the North. Belarus - with 7,878 tons worth $2,132 million and Germany with 1,180 tons of potatoes worth $1,185 million, are among the top three trading partners by imports.
As for the export of local potatoes, the largest quantity - 3,426 tons worth $745.9 thousand - was exported to Azerbaijan; Russia ranks 2nd, where 1,176 tons of potatoes worth $493.4 thousand were sold, and Belarus - with 84.5 tons worth $30.72 thousand.
Although Georgia imports more potatoes than it sells, it costs the country more to import than to export. Based on the Geostat data, it turns out that this year Georgia sold one kilogram of potatoes for an average of 27 cents, and the cost of imports made an average of 33 cents per kilogram.
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