During his speech at the Parliament of Georgia, the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili, summarised the Government of Georgia’s two years of work and talked about each ministry separately. Whilst assessing the work of the Ministry of Agriculture, the Prime Minister underscored the importance of successful grape harvests and stated: "In the past several years, during the grape harvest, we subsidised both white and red grapes. A total of 218,000 tonnes of grapes have been bought from farmers with the help of the state in the past two years. The wine growers received a total of GEL 289 million as revenues in two years. Of course, the successful grape harvests have given the people hope and encouraged them to plant more vineyards. As result, more than 4,000 hectares of vineyards have been planted over the past two years in our country."
FactChecktook interest in the accuracy of the Prime Minister’s statement.
We contacted the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia and requested statistics concerning Georgia’s vineyards, both previously existing as well as those planted in the past two years. According to the Ministry, the last agricultural census in the country was held in 2004. According to this census, a total of 37,419 hectares of vineyards were recorded in Georgia.
| Area of Vineyards by Regions in 2014 (Hectares) | |
| Georgia, Overall | 37,419 |
| Including: | |
| Ajara | 42 |
| Guria | 268 |
| Imereti | 8,584 |
| Kakheti | 22,227 |
| Mtskheta-Mtianeti | 792 |
| Racha-Lechkhumi and Lower Svaneti | 1,348 |
| Samegrelo-Upper Svaneti | 775 |
| Samtskhe-Javakheti | 6 |
| Kvemo Kartli | 1,757 |
| Shida Kartli | 1,622 |
The National Wine Agency started to implement the vineyard cadastre programme in 2014. The cadastral survey of the Racha-Lechkhumi region was conducted at the first stage. An analysis of the survey found that a total of 572.3 hectares of vineyards are situated in Racha as of today which are represented in the form of 5,510 plots, mainly belonging to private farmers. The majority of the vineyards are situated in the Ambrolauri Municipality. There are currently 233 hectares of vineyards situated in Lechkhumi (Tsageri Municipality) as of today and, similar to Racha, these vineyards usually belong to private farmers. Similar cadastral work will be conducted in Kakheti in 2015. According to the Agency’s information, a tender has already been announced for the cadastral survey of the Kvareli Municipality vineyards.
According to the 2004 survey, a total of 714 hectares of vineyards were situated in Racha (628 hectares in Ambrolauri and 86 hectares in Oni) whilst about 616 hectares of vineyards were situated in Tsageri. According to the 2014 cadastral survey, the amount of vineyards has decreased in Racha-Lechkhumi as compared to the situation in 2004 – by 141 hectares in Racha and by 383 hectares in Lechkhumi. According to the experts of the National Wine Agency, the decrease in the amount of vineyards was mainly due to an almost seven year embargo of the Russian Federation from 2006 to 2013. The demand for semi-sweet wines (Khvanchkara, Usakhelouri and Tvishi) dropped which caused the overall vineyard area to also decrease. Russia abolished the embargo on Georgian wine in 2013 which reopened the wine market and increased both the demand for and the price of grapes (1 kg – GEL 4 to 8). Because of this, farmers started to plant new vineyards in Racha in 2013 and 2014.
According to the National Wine Agency, a total of 5,000 hectares of vineyards were planted in Georgia in 2013 and 2014. Of this, about 4,700 hectares were planted in Kakheti, 50 hectares in Racha and 250 hectares in Shida Kartli, Imereti, Guria and Samegrelo combined. According to the Agency’s explanation, the calculations between the censuses are approximate and a variety of sources were used for them: information of the municipalities and the regional agricultural offices, the number of produced seedlings, the information of different cellars and winegrowers about planting the vineyards and so on. The total area of planted vineyards is calculated by summarising this information.
Internet research also produced some information confirming the planting of vineyards over the past two years. According to these sources, vineyards were planted in Racha-Lechkhumi (45 hectares in Racha and 10 hectares in Tsageri), the Kvareli Municipality (380 hectares of Saperavi, 162 hectares of Rkatsiteli and 10 hectares of Kakhetian Green) and other municipalities of Kakheti as well.
In his statement the Prime Minister also elaborated upon the amount of grapes bought from farmers and the income they received from this. According to the statistics of the National Wine Agency, a total of 217,678 tonnes of grapes were processed in 2013 and 2014 (93,072 tonnes in 2013 and 124,606 tonnes in 2014) and the revenues from their sales amounted to GEL 289,091,593 (GEL 175,341,271 in 2013 and GEL 113,750,322 in 2014) which coincides with the numbers stated by Mr Gharibashvili.
Conclusion According to the National Wine Agency, a total of 5,000 hectares of vineyards were planted in Georgia in 2013 and 2014. Of this, about 4,700 hectares were planted in Kakheti, 50 hectares in Racha and 250 hectares in Shida Kartli, Imereti, Guria and Samegrelo combined. In the sources found by FactCheck,
the winegrowers and officials state that the planting of the vineyards was mainly due to the successful wine harvest and adequately high income.
As for the amount of grapes sold over the past two years, a total of 217,678 tonnes of grapes were processed in 2013 and 2014 and the income amounted to GEL 289,091,593.
FactCheck concludes that Irakli Gharibashvili’s statement: More than 4,000 hectares of vineyards have been planted over the past two years, is TRUE.
