With EU financial and technical assistance, as well as training and education on cooperation and agribusiness, small farmers in Georgia are benefitting from economies of scale, cutting their production costs and increasing efficiency.
On November 30 and December 1 2017 in Tbilisi, at a joint closure event the four partners implementing the EU’s ENPARD’s small farmers’ cooperation component – Care, Mercy Corps, Oxfam and People in Need – presented the results of their four-year work in support of EU-funded agricultural cooperatives in Georgia.
The two-day event included the Policy and Strategy Panel Discussions on the first day, and Plenary Presentations and Cooperatives Gallery on the second.
Dr. Tamar Khuntsaria of the European Union Studies Association and an Associate Professor of the University of Georgia visited ISET to talk to the institute’s students about relations between the European Union and Georgia, with a focus on trade and economic issues.
Dr. Khuntsaria began by explaining the process through which the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area was signed between Georgia and the EU as part of the Association Agreement between the two. She described how the DCFTA removes customs tariffs and quotas, and liberalizes trade in goods and services over a broad spectrum of economic-related issues, including food safety, intellectual property rights and financial matters.