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Otar Shamugia: " Agribusiness production hit a record GEL 16.6 billion, and rural unemployment fell to 13.5%."
The Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Mr. Otar Shamugia, presented a report on the activities performed by the Ministry in 2023 and emphasized the achieved results.Â
"Within the projects implemented by the Ministry, the total volume of investment in agriculture exceeded GEL 7.5 billion, with the state co-financing reaching GEL 2.0 billion. The mentioned initiatives provided farmers and businesses with an opportunity and incentive to put this scale of investments in agriculture.
The support initiatives resulted in an average yearly increase of 10% in agriculture product output over the previous five years, reaching a record GEL16.6 billion in 2023, thus, according to the data of 2023, amounting to a record GEL16.6 billion. During this period, the unemployment rate in rural areas fell by 7.8 percentage points, and the lowest unemployment rate was 14.6%.
According to the data of the first quarter of 2024, this indicator is further improved and reduced to 13.5%. As of 2023, more than 100,000 people are employed solely in the companies and gardens( that we support), both permanently and seasonally’’ the Minister said.