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Georgia to export to Russia $100 mln worth of products in 2013

According to preliminary data, Georgian companies plan to export to Russia about ten million bottles of wines and cognacs by the end of this year

TBILISI, June 24 (Itar-Tass) - Georgia plans to export to Russia 100 million U.S. dollar worth of products, Georgian prime minister’s envoy for relations with Russia Zurab Abashidze said on Monday.

“It may be not a colossal sum but the mere fact [of exports to Russia] is important for Georgian farmers, wineries and companies,” he said in an interview with the Tbilis-based newspaper Prime Time. “We hope the amount of Georgian exports to Russia will only grow in course of time.”

Russia resumed imports of Georgian mineral waters Borzhomi and Sairme in late May 2013. On June 16, 2013, a batch of Georgian cognacs and wines, the first one since 2006, reached Moscow. According to preliminary data, Georgian companies plan to export to Russia about ten million bottles of wines and cognacs by the end of this year. Georgia will begin exporting to Russia farming products, such as greenery, spices, honey, and fruits and vegetable in the next two to three weeks.

Earlier, Georgian Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili said that Russia’s ban on imports of Georgian products in 2006-2007 was rooted, to a larger extent, in “non- diplomatic pronouncements of President [Mikhail] Saakashvili who drove situation to that when the country was stripped of the possibility to export its products to Russia.”

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