Georgia Exports 18.8 Million Bottles of Wine in Jan-Jun

TBILISI – Georgia’s National Wine Agency earlier this week said, citing statistical data, that the country exported 18.8 million bottles of wine worth USD 46.6 million to 40 countries worldwide in the first half of the year.

The total number of exports amounts to a 44 per cent increase from the same period of 2015.

The Agency noted that the largest percentage of exports were to Russia, where the numbers of sent grew 56 per cent growth to 10,198,085 bottles, Ukraine with 2,286,977 bottles – an 82 per cent increase – and Belarus, where wine exports increased by 96 per cent to 462,547 bottles.

Exports to China had the highest growth rate, spiking 148 per cent to 1,884,665 bottles, while becoming the third largest market for Georgia’s wine exports.

Russia and Ukraine continue to occupy the first and second main export destinations, while Kazakhstan and Poland – which dropped one place each with the rise of the Chinese market – rounded out the top five.

Georgia also exported 3,710,997 bottles of locally produced brandy worth USD 8.5 million to foreign markets, which was a 47 per cent increase from the same period last year.

During the first half of 2016, the revenue earned from alcoholic beverage exports amounted to about USD 78.8 million, up from the USD 58.3 million earned in the same period of 2015.

By Eka Karsaulidze

Edited by Nicholas Waller