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Minister Davitashvili: “In an incumbent year, similarly to the previous ones, we are standing by our compatriots to ensure minimizing damage caused to the disaster”
The Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, Mr Levan Davitashvili, Mr Leri Barnabishvili, head of the Regional Liaison Department along with Mr Irakli Shioshvili, State Trustee of the Kakheti region met with the farmers, who have suffered from the natural disaster and briefed them on the assistance programs to be deployed by the State.“I would like stress out that each and every year, the State is standing by the people and we are undertaking every possible effort to safeguard them from the damage, which is an aftermath of the disaster. Some of the political powers do try to speculate with these developments and manipulate on the people’s feelings. They have stated that the citizens have been abandoned and there is an absence of the State assistance. Their claims are false due to the fact that our coordination unit’s staff have been actively engaging with the farmers to accommodate the damaged grapes in an organized manner. We shall embrace how unprecedented the support to the viticulture by our Government has been, which translates from consistent policy and deploying various actions, such as developing the industry as well as offering compensations, when required.
We can recall unprecedented compensations of 2012 offered by Mr Bidzina Ivanishvili and “Cartu” Foundation, which assisted farmers in hardships. This year, the Government has decided to issue a one-time compensation of 3000 GEL to the farmers, whose harvest has been completely destroyed. Also, damaged grapes of Rkatsiteli will be accepted for 0,8 GEL, while damaged grapes of Saperavi will be accepted for 1 GEL” – Mr Davitashvili stated.
On August 26, strong wind and hail has damaged 4600 hectares of grapes in the Telavi and Gurjaani municipalities of the Kakheti region.