Ukraine’s agriculture started progressing after the land reforms of 2001, which established an effective land rental market. While the titles to land still belong to former kolkhoz and sovkhoz members, agricultural land can now be easily aggregated and leased to interested businesses. Given the ease of entering and exiting the industry (and of extending farm size), this reform has unleashed a fast process of land consolidation (particularly until 2008) and productivity growth. Some of Ukraine’s largest farms currently span close to 150,000ha. For c...
ISET Economist Blog
A blog about economics in the South Caucasus.
Sep
18
Sep
13
On June 28, the Georgian Parliament passed a bill imposing a moratorium on land acquisition by foreigners and foreign-owned legal entities till the end of 2014. The bill effectively reversed an earlier policy that welcomed foreigners to settle and invest in Georgia’s agricultural sector, a policy culminating in the seemingly outlandish program seeking to bring to Georgia – and offer fast-track naturalization to – dozens of expert farmers from South Africa.
Rattled by this policy reversal, groups representing the expat business community in Georgia are tr...
May
24
We are very happy to post the second part of Jacques Fleury's commentary on the Georgian Wine Industry. In the first part, Jacques reflected on the experience of surviving the Russian embargo, on the one hand, and dealing with a series of heavy-handed and incompetent government interventions, on the other. In the second part of his comment Jacques proposes a new vision for the future of the Georgian wine industry, a future in which the government and the private sector work hand-in-hand to support small vine growers and promote Georgian wines to ne...
May
22
According to available data from the ministry of agriculture (MoA), by 1 May, 2013, 400,000 hectares have been cultivated this year in Georgia, which means a 100% increase compared to last year and the highest figure, by far, since 2005. In fact, this is the highest yearly increase in cultivated area Georgia recorded during the last decades.
In total, Georgia has around 800,000 hectares of agricultural land (i.e. land suitable for cultivation).
Table: Georgian agricultural land in cultivation (hectares), 1990-2013
Source...
May
15
We are very happy to host on our blog a commentary by Jacques Fleury, the person behind the resurrection of Borjomi and a key player in the Georgian wine industry. Jacques reflects on the experience of surviving the Russian embargo, on the one hand, and dealing with a series of heavy-handed and incompetent government interventions, on the other. In the second part of his comment, to be published next week, Jacques also proposes a new vision for the future of the Georgian wine industry, a future in which the government and the private sector work hand-in-...
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