Georgian farmers demand limited poultry imports

The Association of Georgian Poultry Farmers (AGPF) has raised concerns over the future of the domestic industry, as the imported production is steadily pushing out the domestic poultry from the national market.

AGPF has appealed to the government with the request to introduce quotas on poultry imports. If this step would not been taken, AGPF forecasts the massive wave of bankruptcies among the domestic poultry farms in 2015.

“Georgian farmers are concerned by the fact that imported products have more demand than the domestically produced poultry on the national market,” stated Zyrab Uchymbegashvili, the head of AGPF. “The industry representatives asked the authorities to pass a bill to limit the import of products of those industries in which domestic producers can meet the demand of the population”.

Representatives of the poultry production industry say that the inactivity of the country’s Agricultural Ministry may bring a heavy impact on the country’s food security as the dependence of the Georgian market on imported poultry is steadily growing.

Uchymbegashvili says that the bill on limiting imports of poultry production is not likely to be adopted. “There is not any movement in this direction,” he says, adding that the current situation may result in the bankruptcies of “dozen of poultry farms, starting December of this year”.