Georgia’s Q1 Wine Exports Up 45% Year-on-Year

TBILISI – Georgia’s wine exports in the first quarter of 2016 grew 45 per cent year-on-year, according to the Georgian National Wine Agency.

More than 11.5 million bottles valued at 27 million USD of Georgian wine have been exported to 30 countries during the period.

The overall value of the wine exported increased 15 per cent from the previous year.

Russia has been the largest importer of Georgian wine in 2016, with the total number of imports registering an 85 per cent year-on-year growth (5,925,933 bottles) for the first quarter of the year.

Ukraine – a traditional top consumer of Georgian wine – ranked second with 1.5 million bottles imported since January, a 70 per cent increase. China imported 779,425 bottles in the first four months of 2016, a 58 per cent increase.

Poland (682,522 bottles) and Lithuania (183,636 bottles) were the top EU importers of Georgian wine in the period.

Nearly 2.7 million bottles (USD 6.4 million worth) of brandy was also exported to 11 countries, up 86 per cent from the same period in 2015.

By Eka Karsaulidze