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government, Poti may be expecting a change in the official position.
Van den Essen noted that the main purpose of his visit to Georgia was to confirm that Maersk is committed to making a significant investment in the construction of a new port in Poti.
“We have decided to invest significantly in the construction of a new deep-water port in Poti Port. Discussing this issue with our customers, partners and staff is the main purpose of my visit. We will try to meet with government officials to see how we can move this project forward as quickly as possible, as it is important and valuable to APM Terminals and, of course, to Georgia. We have analysed the volume of freight in the Caucasus corridor. We intend to invest $250mn-300mn in the Poti Port project, which will be sufficient for the expected volume of cargo. We will build a 700-metre berth that will serve large and bulk cargo ships. The harbour will be able to serve vessels up to 300 metres long on two berths 13.5-14.5 meters deep. A 400-metre berth will be arranged for bulk, and a 300-metre berth for containerized cargo. Container freight through the Poti Sea Port will increase to 1 million TEU, and 60,000 ton (Panamax-type) bulk cargo vessels will have access to the new port infrastructure and technical support for efficient service. Overall, the port's annual cargo capacity will increase by an additional 10mn tonnes,” van den Essen said.
The director also answered the question of how he saw future prospects if the Anaklia deep-water project was built.
“Currently, based on our analysis, we do not see the need to build two ports in Georgia. But of course, if this is done within the framework of healthy competition and equal conditions for everyone who wants to build a port, we would welcome it,” said van den Essen.
Lawrence talked of a solid partner, the Poti Consortium of New Terminals.
9.1.6 ​Agriculture sector news
The export of Georgian wine to Russia was down by more than a quarter (27%) year-on-year in July on the back of the latest political spat up between the two countries.
Georgia exported more than 3.5mn bottles of wine to Russia in July, the press service of the National Wine Agency reported on August 15.
"Georgia exported 4,522,250 bottles of wine to Russia in May, 4,209,866 bottles in June and the exports decreased to 3,550,264 bottles in July, which is 27% lower than the export index for July 2018, 28% lower than in May 2019 and 18% less than the data of June 2019," the agency said, as cited by TASS. "Following the political events of summer 2019, the decline in exports to the largest export market for Georgian wine, Russia, and Russia's possible imposition of sanctions on Georgian wine imports prompted expectations that the demand of winemakers for buying grapes would decline in this year's vintage. Producers say they will deliver fewer grapes than planned, as they may have problems selling wine," Levan Mekhuzla, head of the National Wine Agency, said.
On June 20, 2019, several thousand protesters amassed near the national parliament in downtown Tbilisi, demanding the resignation of the interior minister and the parliament’s speaker, and tried to storm it. The protests were sparked by an uproar over the Russian delegation’s participation in the 26th session of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (IAO).
The US Department of Agriculture is to award a $10mn grant under the five-year Food and Progress programme to improve food safety and
51​ GEORGIA Country Report​ October 2019 ​ ​www.intellinews.com