Business in our country enjoys a high degree of freedom, and accordingly, pricing is based on free-market principles. However, this is where our social responsibility to the population comes into play, and based on that responsibility, we believe we can make a certain contribution to lowering prices,” Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said at today’s meeting of the Government Coordination Commission on food prices, attended by Georgian producers.

The head of government drew attention to the existing challenges in selling Georgian-made products on the domestic market and spoke about the available resources for reducing prices.

“We have preliminary information indicating that the current market rules to some extent prevent Georgian producers from properly selling their products within Georgia — in our retail chains.

Overall, the markup from Georgia’s border to the store shelf amounts to 86%. This does not include any taxes — neither import duties nor VAT. This is a pure markup formed at the distribution level and then in retail chains. Accordingly, we believe this markup is quite high.

We also looked, for example, at the difference between wholesale and shelf prices in European countries — as a rule, the markup ranges from 20% to 30%. Based on this, we believe there is room for price reductions, including for Georgian products,” Irakli Kobakhidze said.

Representatives of more than 20 Georgian manufacturing companies took part in the commission meeting.

Later this week, meetings will also be held in the format of the Government Coordination Commission regarding prices of pharmaceutical products and fuel.