Tbilisi says supplies of Georgian wine to Russia to resume next week

(Interfax – TBILISI, June 6, 2013) A first batch of Georgian wine will be sent to Russia next week, Head of the National Wine Agency of the Georgia Agriculture Ministry, Levan Davitashvili, said at a briefing on Thursday.

“Two Georgian wine enterprises have already received Russian excise stamps and plan to begin supplying their products to Russia next week,” Davitashvili said.

Davitashvili said that around ten more enterprises had already applied for excise stamps to the Russian consumer rights watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, and were waiting for stamps to come to start supplies to Russia.

“At this stage, all procedural issues related to the resumption of Georgian wine exports to Russia have been resolved. Judging by the requests the companies already have, the initial export volume will be up to a million bottles of wine, though we forecast that this volume will definitely grow,” Davitashvili said.

Davitashvili said that this forecast related to the fact that “Georgian wine is known in Russia and its popularization at this market, unlike in many other countries, does not require special efforts.”

The official said that wine would be transported to Russia through the Kazbegi-Verkhny Lars checkpoint.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin said on June 5 that Georgian wine could return to Russian in June.