veloped agriculture and food industry and with a good level of production. More than half of its GDP came under the agro-industrial sector of the country; 47 - 48% of the main funds were accumulated within the sector and it employed 41 - 42% of the total population of Georgia.
Georgia used to be an important exporter of food and one of the main suppliers of vegetables, tea, citrus fruits, wine, mineral waters, brandy, canned and fresh vegetables and fruits to the markets of the former Soviet Union. In the second half of the 1980s, the Georgian share of the food market of the former Soviet Republics was 10 percent. The total amount of exported food products was 1.7 times more than imported ones. The country is now undertaking actions to re-establish this exporting.
Since independence in 1991 the country experienced many years of civil war and ethnic conflicts, with 260,000 people internally displaced.
However, Georgia's economy is still strongly linked to the Russian Federation and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Approximately 50 percent of its trade is with the CIS.
Agriculture is a main source of income and employment for the majority of the population, accounting for more then 30 percent of GDP. Output in the sector is only about 40 percent of its 1990 level, but employment in the sector has doubled and it now accounts for over 50 percent of the total employment.
Land privatisation has focused on the small-scale (household/subsistence) sector with little real progress in restructuring the former large state farms. Land reform has resulted in the allotment of small parcels of land up to 1.25 hectares to each rural family and the lease, through district authorities, of state owned land to persons or legal entities, with the aim of creating a subsistence sector for small farmers and a market sector controlled by large leaseholders.
Private producers account for the significant share of fruit, vegetable and livestock production, when their share in wheat production is about two thirds of the total wheat production in the country. The bulk of the domestic wheat production is consumed on farms for food, seed or feed. Indications are that only 20 percent of domestic production of wheat is marketed.
Low yields, also as a result of poor infrastructure, inadequate access to credit for inputs and suitable machinery, and high costs associated with transport and marketing have had a negative impact on food production and the earning capacity of a significant proportion of the population and thus on household food security.
The state of irrigation and drainage systems is also a major constraint to increasing crop yields and the competitiveness of domestic produce with imports. More than 60 percent of grain, 60 percent of dairy products and 33 percent of meat consumed in the country ...
