| This year, Georgian wine exports will amount to no more than 30% of last year’s figure, when Georgia sold 60 million bottles (of which 40 million went to Russia). The Union of Georgian Wine Producers told Vremya Novostey about this. Russia imposed an embargo on alcohol supplies from Georgia and Moldova on March 27. The chief state sanitary doctor of Russia, Gennady Onishchenko, said then that heavy metals and pesticides were found in Georgian and Moldovan wines. After the November CIS summit and the meeting of the presidents of Russia and Moldova, Moldovan wines are gradually beginning to return to the Russian market. In relation to Georgia, the ban continues. Throughout the year, Georgia tried to increase supplies to Ukraine, Kazakhstan and other CIS countries, looked for new markets, including China and Canada, but did not find an equivalent replacement for Russia. Georgia earned $63 million from exporting wine to Russia in 2005. This year, as a result of economic sanctions from Russia, damage to the Georgian economy amounted, according to the local Ministry of Finance, to at least $250 million, or 2.05% of GDP. Mikhail VIGNANSKY, Tbilisi
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