Page 44 - NEWNORMAL_ANIMATED

NEW NORMAL

which were used to having most of their in-
come generated from tourism activities. Fo-
reign tourists remained at home. The gover-
nment cancels all the fairs and festivals, an
important platform for small and medium size
growers to present their wines to the greater
public, professionals and consumers, both lo-
cal and foreign.
However, our industry in an effort to
adapt to the current challenge has started
switching to online platforms. National
Wine Agency will launch the Virtual Pa-
2020 looked very pro- vilion for Georgian Wines project in 2021
mising in the beginning; in cooperation with its UK wine marke-
however, the pandemic ting partner Swirl Wine Group headed by
took a hefty toll on tou- Sarah Abbott MW. It is going to be a B2B
rism with death, fear and meeting place, where international wine
uncertainty causing the global economic dec- traders will meet Georgian growers on pre-
line, including the wine industry. -booked events throughout the year in the
Our exports of wine in 2020 stagnated in form of one-on-one meetings. This will partly
volume (decline of 1%) but decreased - 9% compensate the cancelled international fairs.
in value. The export price per liter fell down Although the future is still vague and un-
by 8%. Out of the biggest export destinations, certain, the process of adapting to a virtual
i.e. Russia, Ukraine, China, Poland, Kazakhstan, presence is actively in progress. However, we
Belarus and Latvia, the major decline causes strongly believe in better times. Georgia is well
fall down by China (-31%) and Kazakhstan known for its warm hospitality. We feel a big
(-16%). Other markets, like Poland (+27%), potential to become an interesting wine coun-
Belarus (+32%), USA (+34%), UK (+155%), S. try with amazing nature, historic sightseeings,
Korea (+353%) enjoyed the growth. In 2020, qvevri amber wines, diverse styles offered by

Georgian wines were available in 60 countries. natural and bio-dynamic growers and a long,
The worst damage affected small wineries, continuous history of Georgian wine. ƅ

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