Move to Revive Georgian Wine Industry

Grape farmer Merab Tavelashvili remembers harvest time – or “rtveli” in Georgian – of his youth as a joyous occasion.

The state bought almost everything that was grown at set prices. The local wine industry flourished and supplied tables well beyond the Caucasus.

The tradition of rtveli, in fact, dates back to ancient times. Some wine experts believe that Georgia’s 3,000-year-old history of viniculture may be the oldest in the world.

“Before, rtveli was a holiday,” said the 65-year-old, taking a break from his work to wipe his brow. “People collected the grapes and sang songs. There is a superstition that if you harvest the grapes in a good mood, the wine will be excellent.”

But Tavelashvili looks around him and scowls, as the grapes glisten in the sun. The fields here in Gurjaani - the heart of the Georgian wine region, Kakheti - are practically devoid of human life. There are only a few workers gathering grapes in the distance - despite the fact that this is the height of the harvest season.

“Now look at it,” he said sadly. “Empty.”

The irony of Tavelashvili’s sour words is that this year has seen a record harvest. Georgian grape growers will produce some 265,000 tonnes of grapes – 200,000 in Kakheti alone – compared with 100,000 tonnes last year.

A large amount of the harvest will go to waste, however. Georgian grape farmers have in recent years regularly produced far more grapes than the wine producers are prepared to buy.

The 130-odd Georgian wineries and wine “factories” (much Georgian wine is produced at large plants) will purchase only around 100 thousand tonnes this year.

As a result, Tavelashvili has been left with a surplus of grapes. Some of them will be sold in farmers’ markets, and others used for homemade wine, but a large amount will just rot, he says.

“What will I do with roughly four [extra] tonnes of grapes? Where will I sell them and at what price?” asked Merab. “I will cut these vines and plant peaches or some other fruit. They need less work and bring in more income.

“I’m tired. I can’t do this any more. Every year it’s the same thing.”

For farmers like Merab Talevashvili there have been better and worse years in recent times but for the most part, grape growing has fallen on hard times.

After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Georgia’s collective farms were broken up and the wine industry was privatised. Farmers were no longer guaranteed that the government would purchase a certain portion of their harvest.

Instead, each farmer was forced to find a buyer among the multitude of wine factories and private companies that had sprung up.

At the same time, the amount of Georgian wine being consumed plummeted, since many markets within the former Soviet Union dried up, and the price of grapes dropped sharply.

“I can’t afford to sell my grapes for 30 tetri (16 US cents) per kilogramme,” said Dmitri Titoshvili, a Gurjaani farmer. “I can’t pay my costs, let alone speak of getting some sort of income or support my family.”

Adding to their problems was the fact that many factories, in order to boost profits, produced counterfeit wine – either by buying a cheaper sort of grape, or else simply adding food colouring to alcohol made from other fruit (apples, for example).

Now, however, Georgian government officials say that help is on the way. For the first time, the authorities are introducing a system of wide-ranging reforms that they say will reorganise the wine industry along international lines and boost wine production.

Many observers welcome the reforms, but say that they do not go far enough. They warn that if measures are not taken for the entire agriculture sector, including direct financial support to farmers, the industry will wither.

According to Mikheil Svimonishvili, Georgia’s agriculture minister, the government wants to clean up and rationalise the country’s wine industry.

The reforms include a countrywide registration of all the vineyards, wine regions and different types of wine; strict monitoring of the types and amount of grapes that are sold and wine produced; and regular testing of wine quality.

“We have declared total war against counterfeit wine,” Svimonishvili told IWPR. “Maybe not immediately, but soon, positive results will spread throughout the entire Georgian economy.

“Until now, there was no precedent where a counterfeiter was punished.”

Svimonishvili says the losses to the industry as a result of falsification are substantial, with the amount of wine produced actually exceeding the number of grapes bought.

Some 17 million bottles of Khvanchkara and Kindzmarauli – two well-known brands – were exported last year, for example. But factories bought only enough grapes to produce 2.4 million bottles of these wines.

Companies in Moldova, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine and Spain, according to agriculture ministry figures, have produced on average annually some 150 million bottles of so-called Georgian wine.

In an effort to curb the abuses and give a lift to grape growers and wine producers, the authorities plan a major reorganisation of the industry.

For the first time, says Svimonishvili, the government is actively trying to develop viniculture.

All Georgian wines will be trademarked over the next year. Furthermore, wineries will be required to keep official records of the amount and type of grapes purchased and wine produced. Only when this information has been submitted will they receive permission to sell their wine.

Grape growers, for their part, will have to register their vineyards. Each farmer will then receive documents detailing the sort of grape, the region of the country and even the quality of the soil.

As a result, says Svimonishvili, “more grapes will be bought and the farmers’ problems will be solved”.

The effects of some of the government’s policies are already being felt. In the past three months, officials have disposed of some 500 tonnes of fake wine, says the minister.

Economists approve of the reforms, and though it is still too early to speak of any finite results, they say that they hope for an improvement soon.

“Those who are producing counterfeit wine right now will simply have to buy grapes and produce high-quality wines,” said Niko Lekishvili, a member of parliament and well-known businessman. “They will hardly want their wineries to stand idle."

However, some economists believe that the entire agriculture sector is in danger. Without significant subsidies, many farms will fail, they say.

“The government should take a look at how much money is spent in the United States and Europe to support agriculture,” said Niko Orvelashivili, an independent expert.

Dmitri Titoshvili, the Gurjaani grape grower, agrees. “Not only diesel fuel, but also pesticides and fertiliser have got more expensive,” he said. “Without help from the government, we can’t survive.”

Nato Alapishvili is a reporter for the Black Sea Press news agency in Tbilisi.