The President of Georgia met with the Minister of Agriculture, the Governor of Kakheti and eight township heads in the village of Velistsikhe in the Gurjaani area. The representatives of the government met with the President customarily and provided him with detailed information about planned events and received directives from him. As Mikheil Saakashvili said, based on the experiences of recent years, if the vineyard is well-planned in order to meet the upcoming challenges, we will reach the desired result. Because of a very large harvest this year, the President thinks that compared to previous years, this year a larger economic effect should follow. However, the Head of State also appraised last year's harvest as satisfactory. The gathering of grapes began on the 27^th of August and will reach an active phase in the following months. 

"The vineyard in Kakheti is not an ordinary event - it is a very important, fundamental and a political issue. Within the scope of the 2015 modernization program, we are investing money in every part of agriculture. We have already imported special agricultural products, some new sources of employment are becoming available and we are implementing different methods of production in Kakheti, but - grapes, vineyards, and wine mean more to us than a normal direction of agriculture. We are talking about an authentic symbol of our identity and our culture; this is our pride and what our liberty is based on. That's why this is a more sensitive issue for me and we should all work hard in order to popularize our wine. We should share foreign expertise too. On one hand, we have 400 local breeds of grapes - Georgian breeds, which no other country (except for France) in the world possesses; however, on the other hand we need to develop new technologies. To that end we met with European wine-makers a few weeks ago. This year we are founding a Wine University in Kakheti, we are bringing many foreign wine-makers, and we are sending our specialists abroad so they can learn new skills to make Georgian breeds better. Several years ago we were facing the danger of rooting out and destruction of our vineyards. Our occupant (back then it was not yet officially an occupant) set an embargo on Georgian products for one particular reason - they thought that Kakhetians would run and personally deliver the key of the "fortress." They don't know Kakhetians very well! We endured Shah-Abbas and other conquerors and we are well aware of what to do. The most important thing is that we saved our vineyards and the main crisis has been overcome. The improvement of the vineyards and the breeds of grapes could completely change the current situation. Australia and other countries are also doing the same - we have breeds some of which are not compatible with our climate, with our tradition and the demand of the world market, but our main breeds need care and development. We need to work diligently in this direction. It seems like we will have a greater harvest this year than last year. This is good on one hand but on the other hand it is a challenge for every one of you" - noted Mikheil Saakashvili.

As the Minister of Agriculture told the President, grapes still remain as the main source of income in Kakheti. According to preliminary information, this year the harvest is predicted to increase by 50%, which will bring about 60 million GEL to the Kakheti region. Mikheil Saakashvili noted that from a social view, this will be a great relief for Kakhetians.

The President also touched on the issue of exporting wine and stated that this year a larger portion of export production should reach the US market, because Georgia has already acquired a US Trademark.

We should keep supplying the markets where there is rule of law, transparency and the possibility to predict trends. The American market is incredibly large compared to the Russian market. There was very little genuine Georgian wine in the Russian market, because they distributed locally-made, falsified Georgian wine. In reality, what Georgia sold at the Russian market was a very small percentage of our production. All being said it is natural that the embargo has damaged us a great deal. It was difficult for us to overcome, but the experience of the years following the embargo has shown us that it is not impossible. So, I call on you to work more actively, because our production has a huge chance in Europe and China.  We will have to expend a lot of energy to reach this goal. We have a stable export line to Ukraine and Kazakhstan, but we have to work harder to reach the markets of the Baltic and Poland more deeply. So, I think that dependence on the Russian market is practically non-existent now." - stated the President.

The President has told the government representatives that the main goal for the following year is supplying of the local market. While tourism is developing in the country, the President thinks that supplying the local market is becoming increasingly advantageous in terms of greater economic gains.

"In the following years, Georgia will become our main market. Based on the 2015 Modernization program, I predict that we will have 7-8 million tourists. This means that we should plan to produce approximately 10 million bottles of wine just for the guests of our country. The local demand will be added to this number, which will be around 8 million bottles (today the local consumption is about 6 million bottles) and we will reach a local distribution of about 20 million bottles per year, which is about 40% of our production. This is a serious breakthrough" - he noted.

The President of Georgia expressed his concern about logistical problems and asked whether the population was satisfied by the results of the previous year. According to the Minister of Agriculture, there were no problems last year and everything went smoothly. He also said that vintage headquarters has been established, there is a vintage hotline and the information crucial to the management of the process is stored in one comprehensive database.

The organizers of the vintage also received specific directives from the President. Mikheil Saakashvili thinks that with good marketing, the increase of prices and reaching better results are simultaneously possible. According to him, first a deficit-like demand should be created. We should learn to distribute production and then start regulating prices.

"People know about our Georgian wine everywhere, but in most countries they haven't yet tasted it. It's the same with tourism. Many people know that Georgia is a good country but people from very few countries have visited Georgia. For example, "Borjomi" mineral water is everywhere in Lithuania, but Georgian wine is nowhere to be found. The production based on old methods of export won't take us very far. We need to develop more sophisticated marketing methods and learn new methods. Georgians are learning all of this gradually. We need to work like South Africans and Chileans did at the beginning. They started from a scratch, but we won't need to do so. However, we still need to overcome some old, unproductive traditions.

At this stage the most important thing is to keep the harvest safe, then to reproduce it and take it to the market. If we can't make this happen we won't get the desired results. When there is not a deficit-like demand we cannot increase the price. We should first create a deficit-like demand, learn how to distribute and then think about increasing the price. We are expecting a greater harvest this year, that's why we should keep the current prices and not lower them. This is our goal for the current year. We should work like we worked in the case of corn and several other agricultural products. Implementation of modern technologies and updating them should become a constant process. We have very open-minded people and before they reach the needed levels of expertise we have to give them an opportunity to learn and work. I think the vintage of last year was a success and it was the result of the hard work from every one of you. However, every vintage is a challenge for us. Can we or can we not stand by our people and help them feel relief? I know that there are problems in Georgia, but we experienced fairly large inflation in the first months of this year. The income generated by the harvest will help many families feel relief. So, if we work hard and don't let ourselves get frightened, everything will go well" - stated the President of Georgia.