Georgian tangerines and apples return to Russia

Georgy Kalatozishvili, Tbilisi. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russia announced the elimination of limits on the import of agricultural products from Georgia, including fruit, vegetables, and citrus fruits. The ban on the export of fruit and vegetables to Russia damaged the agriculture of Georgia very much and worsened the difficult situation in this economic sphere.

It’s no surprise that the news on opening up of the Russian market caused euphoria in the regions where gardening is traditionally thought to be a key sphere, especially in Kartli and Adzharia. Adzharia’s farmers prepare to export 80,000 tons of tangerines by winter. Moreover, there are no problems with transportation: according to a recent agreement, Russian importers can cross the Russian-Georgian border without visas near the town of Kazbegi and buy tangerines there from agents. The breakthrough at the trade sphere became possible due to the talks between two experienced diplomats – deputy foreign minister of Russia Grigory Karasin and the ambassador Zurab Abashidze, who answered Vestnik Kavkaza’s questions.

-          Don’t you think there is an inconsistence in the position of Moscow? The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russia gives the green light for fruit, vegetables, and citrus fruits at the moment when the head of the Russian Federal Consumer Rights Protection and Human Health Control Service, Gennady Onishchenko, doubted the quality of Georgian wine exported to the Russian market again.

-          The decision the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russia on agricultural products from Georgia is good news. We have been working on the problem for eight months during our talks with the deputy foreign minister of Russia, Grigory Karasin. I mean our meetings in Prague. It was a format of the direct Georgian-Russian dialogue, and it bore fruits after the first meeting which took place in last December. The main topic of our negotiations was reconstruction of trade contacts and export of Georgian goods to the Russian market. At the moment export of wines and mineral waters has already started to Russia in significant volumes. As for Mr. Onishchenko’s statement, he mentioned the wine-producing companies which had no license in the Russian Federation. So, there is nothing new in the last statement by Gennady Onishchenko. We knew that some wine lines were rejected. Wine-producers knew about it several months ago. As for agricultural products, here we can involve much more producers and companies than in the sphere of wine and mineral water producing. It is great that we will have an opportunity to export already in this year.

-          What are the next steps? Is a complete reconstruction of transport links and a simplification of the visa regime possible?

-          Concerning transport, we have generally agreed with Mr. Karasin on reconstruction of cargo transport communications with participation of Russian and Georgian companies. At the moment we have to deal with technical issues, including issuing visas to drivers of big trucks. As for simplification of the visa regime for our citizens, Russian colleagues tell us that the process is going on and the number of granted visas is growing. We have no certain statistics, but our data from them confirms that the numbers of visas is growing. For example, granting visas to relatives of Russian citizens became much simpler.

-          However, tension on the Georgian-Ossetian border remains. The installation of barriers continues there. Does it disturb the process of improvement of Russian-Georgian relations?

-          The situation in the sphere of South Ossetia and Abkhazia’s administrative relations is very tense. The construction of barbed wire fences creates a bad atmosphere for our dialogue. Society has many sharp questions on the situation. It would be great if the positive process and mutual concessions which we began wasn’t worsened by such contrived actions.