Azernews.Az

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

The Georgian government discusses the opportunities of wheat imports from the European and American markets instead of Russia. Hungary has made the best offer so far, said Levan Silagava, Head of the Association of Bakery Producers.

The government started to fill and increase Georgia's wheat stocks following Russia's step to reduce wheat export to foreign markets including Georgia. Russia shares nearly 90 percent of the post-Soviet country's overall wheat import.

"The Georgian government is going to import European and American wheat by its own resources, since private companies are not able to solely handle this process,” Silagava said.

He added that the government plans to import American wheat and then sell it to the mills to meet the supplies.

"We were discussing the opportunity to import wheat from Kazakhstan, but the price of Kazakh wheat is very high. We have also offers from the European countries with lower price,” Silagava said.

However, the experts believe that it is important for Georgia to expand its domestic production of wheat.

"The situation in Georgia has become more tense when Russia decided to reduce its export to the external markets. Russia was our main wheat supplier over the recent two years given the best price offered for its product. But it does not mean that we are completely dependent on the Russian market. For example, we imported 80 percent of wheat from Kazakhstan three years ago as the Middle Asia country offered the most acceptable price,” Silagava noted.

Wheat supplies is very important for any country as it is a strategically important product on par with oil, gas or energy products, said Silagava.

Nowadays, the minimum price for a sack of flour is nearly $19, while it may reach $23.5 as the price of wheat in Russia has already increased by 50 percent.

However, Silagava believes that the price of bread will not hike in Georgia given the country's sufficient supplies of wheat.