The average cost of cooking one standard Imeretian khachapuri declined to 3.24GEL in May 2019. The price dropped by 6.4% month-on-month (compared to April 2019); however year-on-year prices have increased by 2.4% (compared to May 2018).
The Khachapuri Index lost value in all large cities in Georgia compared to the prior month (April 2019). The highest month-on-month decrease of 16.6% was observed in Kutaisi, where the price stood at 2.68 GEL, followed by Telavi (3.30 GEL) where the monthly decrease was 7.7%. Tbilisi and Batumi happened to be the most expensive places to buy khachapuri (3.50 GEL) in May, although the Tbilisi price of khachapuri still decreased, by 1.6% and the Batumi price decreased by 0.7%. The price difference between the most expensive cities (Tbilisi, Batumi) and the cheapest one (Kutaisi) was 0.82 GEL.
The monthly decrease in prices is partially because of the Easter holiday, which made prices of milk and milk products higher in April 2019, however we now see a declining trend. Furthermore, the negative monthly change in the Khachapuri Index follows the traditional seasonal trend in fresh milk production. Moreover, traditionally we observe that these seasonal fluctuations in the price of cheese are consistently sharper in Kutaisi than elsewhere in Georgia. This might be explained by the fact that Imereti is the largest milk producing region in Georgia and once the season of milk production starts, the prices decline. The lower prices in Kutaisi will most probably be transmitted to other cities in Georgia as well.
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