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“Education is the biggest value for farmers.”
With these words, Zaza Keresidze, ENPARD's coordinator (from People in Need – PIN) in the region of Racha, Georgia welcomed ISET graduate students during a field trip organized by the Agricultural Policy Research Center (APRC) of the ISET Policy Institute.
The two-day field trip to Racha (a highland area in western Georgia, located in the upper Rioni river valley and hemmed in by the Greater Caucasus mountains), included visits to Blauenstein Georgia and the Natural Products of Racha agricultural cooperative, during which local representatives of the farm and cooperative introduced ISET students to the current operations, capacities, and highlights of their respective enterprises.
The students first visited Blauenstein Georgia, which is composed of a local farm complex in Racha, a meat processing plant, and the Blauenstein Brand shop in Tbilisi. The company’s local representatives conducted a small tour which started in the slaughterhouse and continued on to the farm.
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Ulrich Koester, Professor of Agricultural Economics at Kiel University and IAMO Visiting Research Fellow, paid a visit to ISET on May 30. During his presentation, Prof. Koester provided an overview about the specifics of the agricultural sector and its impact on agricultural trade; furthermore, he clarified that traditional trade theory is of minor relevance for explaining agricultural trade policies and trade flows.
Prof. Ulrich started his presentation by explaining the standard model of trade liberalization. He clarified that the theory behind this does not explicitly claim that ‘free trade is best’, and instead states that ‘given certain assumptions, it is best’. In line with traditional trade theory, the effect of changes in trade policy cannot be quantified correctly with a comparative-static analysis. Adjustment effects are the most important, especially the specifics of agricultural factors of production limit adjustment in the short and medium terms. In addition, changes in the whole economy are of the most importance, rather than those of one specific sector.
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