Georgian Minister of Agriculture Bakur Kvezereli said that the government is searching for new wheat importers for Georgia to minimize price rises for bread products, News Georgia reports.
Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili visited a supermarket last evening, together with Premier Nika Gilauri and Minister Kvezereli, and ordered the government to diversify wheat supplies to Georgia.
Niko Gilauri said that the problems with wheat come from the poor harvest. The premier noted that wheat export in some countries was forbidden and Georgia needs to search for new suppliers of wheat, as well as corn.
Georgia consumes 800 000 tons of wheat, 15% of which it produces. 95% of wheat import comes from Russia, the rest from Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Russian Premier Vladimir Putin said that Russia is banning grain export on August 5th. On August 15th his initiative came into force. In August the prices for Georgian bread rose by an average of 5.5 cents.
