The President of Georgia summoned the representatives of Kakheti local government and the Minister of Agriculture to meet at his house in Kvareli, in order to talk about the process of the vintage. Mikheil Saakashvili expressed interest in the details and stated that a successful completion of the vintage is an issue of dignity.
As the Minister of Agriculture told the President, in spite of some problems at the beginning, the vintage is going on successfully and the current issue is reproduction of grapes.
“We have to form a special strategy for the following years and help develop small production facilities. The local population should have their own wine-cellars, open tourist facilities and have their own share of the market. The managers of the wine factories have their own vineyards, they are also buying new ones and if a person has a vineyard this small they should have a certain income. That’s why our main goal is to advertise these places in order to assist the local population in attracting tourists. Now regarding the larger lands, the main goal is to reach various new markets. For example, we are selling 200,000 bottles of wine in Poland. According to my projections, it is possible to sell 5-6 million bottles there. If we administer a good campaign we should be able to achieve this easily. We are selling less than a million bottles in Ukraine, when we can reach 8-10 million bottles. There is also huge prospects for growth in the US. We have been fighting to eliminate losses in the recent years, the trademark was not protected…the people of Russian descent produced our wine in the US, practically every Georgian brand. We have now moved these people aside through the legal processes. The previous government sold Khvanchkara and other wine brands to Bulgaria and companies of other countries. It was an unbelievable chaos. Taking care of these problems took us 5-6 years, but now our top priority is an active campaign. By of the way, we have allocated money to open a wine bar in the center of the Capital of the United States. We will definitely assist it. I talked to my friend in Warsaw and good Georgian wine has already appeared in several shops there, however one should know where to find it. We will keep holding advertising campaigns constantly. We should form a serious campaign in Poland as well. We have also started one in Ukraine and we should continue this process. We will reach many other markets. This is our way because we cannot solve the problem with only today’s key. Our wine needs serious advertising by the government and this should be implemented on all levels of marketing. A small production problem remains, needing a separate strategy in the following years. Almost everyone knows about Georgia and the Georgian wine already. Our goal is to not only keep them interested but to intensify this interest and satisfy their demand.” – stated the President of Georgia while talking to the representatives of the government.
As Bakur Kvezereli told the President, a large scale event will be held in Warsaw with the aim of popularizing Georgian wine. Degustation will take place in every restaurant. Everybody, including the owners of restaurants will have a chance to find out about the Georgian wine. According to the Governor of Kakheti – Giorgi Gvinishvili, a Polish exporter who exports bottled Kindzmarauli to the Polish market, is trying to popularize the cellar wine in his country.
Mikheil Saakashvili appraised the vintage of previous years positively and noted that this has an essential meaning not only for the region of Kakheti but for the entire country.
“It is the issue of dignity that the vintage happens in an organized way, with a clear result, and most importantly, people earn money. The families should be relieved. This is our position!” – added Mikheil Saakashvili.