Government approves State Support Program for increasing Georgian wine’s export potential

By Khatia Bzhalava

Tuesday, September 7

The goal of the new state funding project is to promote and increase Georgian wine sales in new geographies.

The marketing budget for each wine company per year is set at GEL600,000, however, if the program is implemented successfully, the state might allocate additional funds.

On Monday, the Government of Georgia approved the State Support Program for Promoting Georgian wine abroad. The program aims at enhancing Georgian wine’s export potential, competitiveness, and popularity in international markets. The program will be implemented by the National Wine Agency and will cost GEL3 million.

According to the Minister of Agriculture Levan Davitashvili, the project envisages the co-funding of trade marketing activities for wine companies. As he said, information about Georgian wine is constantly being shared with different target markets such as the USA, Great Britain, Poland, the Baltics, South-East Asia, etc. However, as the minister notes, it is planned to make Georgian wine more popular on the international market. For this reason, support under the program will be provided for various marketing activities seeking to ensure entry into chain store networks, efforts designed to stimulate sales by franchises and special wine shops, media campaigns for enhancing sales, and advertising sales through online platforms and social networking.

“We have decided to provide the State Support Program in the markets where Georgian wine is already presented but not at the desired scale. In other words, Georgia should establish itself among the renowned wine producers and exporters in the world,” said Davitashvili.

According to the minister, the goal is to promote and increase wine sales in new geographies, therefore, the government will co-finance marketing campaigns of wine companies in every export market where Georgian wine is presented (except for CIS countries). The marketing budget for each company per year was set at GEL600,000, however, this is a pilot version and if the program is implemented successfully, the state might increase the program budget.

According to Davitashvili, the Georgian government has been carrying out wine promotion programs for years. Funding for Georgian wine has increased significantly since 2013, and today, the Georgian wine promotion budget has become GEL9-10 million. He also noted that 341 companies exported wine to 53 countries in 2019, while in 2020 about 371 companies exported wine to 60 countries.