On June 23rd, Open Society Georgia Foundation organized a roundtable discussion on the EU-Georgia trade relations.
Discussion was based on the policy paper analyzing risks and opportunities of the DCFTA for Georgia. One of the topics of the meeting was EU-Georgia relations and future prospects – the view from Brussels.
Sopo Skhirtladze, economist of International School of Economics (ISET) highlighted the importance of DCFTA for Georgia’s export potential. According to her, DCFTA will mainly influence sectors, such as agriculture and food processing.
Zurab Modebadze, analyst of the web portal “eugeorgia.info” provided information about Georgian entrepreneurs already having the experience of exporting local food products in EU market. Food safety and food hygiene are among crucial factors to be complied with EU standards. Skilled staff is another important drawback, as well as preliminary and preparatory measures of the production phase.
“Georgia needs to train staff due to the shortage of qualified professionals, for instance the scarcity of competent veterinarians, the absence of soil analysis makes difficult for the producers to decide what to produce on a specific soil… Georgian citizens do not have respective information on products being in high demand in EU, state aid programs are not flexible enough etc.” – he stated.
See the policy brief here.