Georgian wheat producers struggle to preserve and sell this year’s harvest owing to the conflict in Ukraine as last year’s crops deteriorate day by day.
Since many Georgian farmers have increased their fields to enhance supplies, Mindia Gushikashvili’s crops have doubled since this time last year.
He claims that many Georgian farmers have increased the size of their fields to help the nation avoid a potential harvest deficit brought on by the growing conflict in Ukraine.
Crop farmers will harvest in a few weeks, but their barns are still full of unselable prior crops.
Farmers claim that there is no market demand for their wheat this year and that the present price is far below its peak.
Gushikashvili exclaims, “It is a disaster for us!”
The cost to manufacture one pound of grain is between 22 and 25 cents, while it is sold for between 15 and 18 cents on the market.
Farmers claim that this year’s crop field improvements are more expensive because the land rent has gradually increased. Additionally, there is a storage issue.
According to experts, Russia’s economic policies has caused a decrease in the demand for local wheat. They claim that the Russian crop market is very important to Georgia.
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Russia imposed export duties two years ago but exempted flour. This indicated that Georgian farmers preferred importing less priced flour to the costly grain.
resulting in it becoming the preferred commodity for local consumers and less expensive than Georgian flour.
As a result, Georgian barns began to overflow with each harvest, bringing them to a halt.
As a result, farmers were no longer able to sell their harvest from the previous year to the mills, according to Levan Silagava, executive director of the Georgian Association of Wheat and Flour Producers.
The Georgian Ministry of Agriculture is still in contact with representatives of the affected sector.
The Georgian Ministry of Agriculture is in frequent contact with representatives of the struggling sector. The Ministry claims that it is looking for a way to placate frustrated wheat growers without driving up market prices.
While the old crop remains unsold, the harvest season will soon be upon us in less than a month, and farmers will have little to no concept of how (or where) to store the new crop.