Resuscitation of Wine Cradle Implications of booming wine industry on smallholder viticulture and their survival strategies: Case of Georgian wine sector expansion

Abstract

Going through the structural transformation processes since the 1990s, Georgia has opened its economy for export. This has been achieved by free trade agreements and governments’ attempts at promoting and assisting stakeholders. Being a “cradle of wine”, wine represents one of the most exported commodities of the country. This has been a result of partially, governments’ policy implementations, and partially by strong winemaking tradition of Georgia. This thesis examines the effects of wine sector expansion on the livelihoods of smallholder viticulture in Kakheti, and strategies employed for the purpose of co-existence. The study uses qualitative data methods, and the empirical data is presented from semi- structured interviews within the case study context. The results indicated that favorable implementations do create opportunities for smallholder viticulture but at the same time threat arise due to increased competition. Some of the key challenges and gaps pertaining are: lack of physical and human assets, due to lack of skillset and the barriers to access the infrastructure; unfair competition where strategies employed are responses towards it. Availability of resources, capabilities and scope of operations effect the strategies. Despite, the differences, intensification and commercialization, diversification and long-term thinking are employed by different sector-players to co-exist in the competitive climate.

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