BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 31
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
A joint committee will be created in Georgia with the participation of a group of wine growers from the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), Trend reports referring to the Ministry of Environment and Agriculture of Georgia.
The committee will contribute to strengthening cooperation between INRA and Center for Agricultural Research of the Ministry of Environment and Agriculture of Georgia, said the ministry. The cooperation aims at the development of joint projects, research and other activities.
“The varieties of Georgian cultivated and wild vines preserved in the collection of the Jigaura vineyards are a rare variety that is largely unrelated to the genetic resources of Europe. That is why there is a big interest in scientific methods of their cultivation,” said Levan Uimadzhuridze, director of the Center for Agricultural Research of Georgia.
According him, the richness of each collection, reflecting regional diversity, is of common interest in terms for conservation and scientific strudy.
In Georgia, over 500 grape varieties are registered. Many of them grow throughout Georgia, but there are varieties that are found singly in different parts of Georgia.
Georgia is one of the region's leaders in wine production from grapes.
The country exported about 65.2 million bottles (0.75 liters) of wine to 50 countries from January through September 2019, which is 10 percent more than in the same period in 2018. The value of exported wine reaches $164 million, which is 16 percent more than in the same period of 2018.
Wine exports to the US increased by 60 percent (533,206 bottles), to the UK - by 40 percent (93,067 bottles), to Poland – by 18 percent (2.90 million bottles) and to China – by 11 percent (5.33 million bottles).
Top ten exporting countries are Russia (41.11 million bottles), Ukraine (6.76 million bottles), China (5.33 million bottles), Poland (2.90 million bottles), Kazakhstan (2.47 million bottles), Belarus (1 million bottles), Latvia (988,122 bottles), the US (533,206 bottles), Lithuania (503,832 bottles) and Estonia (499,736 bottles).
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