Publication

The topic of this issue is Agriculture and Trade with Russia. Firstly, Phatima Mamardashvili, Salome Gelashvili, Ia Katsia, and Salome Deisadze show that agricultural trade dependency on Russia is most pronounced for Azerbaijan and Armenia and is significantly lower for Georgia due to Russia’s embargo against Georgia’s food exports from 2006 to 2012. Secondly, Sophie Ghvanidze, Linda Bitsch, Jon H. Hanf, and Miranda Svanidze focus on the wine industry in the South Caucasus; while Georgia preserved its wine culture after the dissolution of the USSR, Armenia and Azerbaijan had to revitalize their wine sectors. Thirdly, Miranda Svanidze and Linde Götz point out that food security has improved during the transition period, although food insecurity is still prevalent in the countries of the South Caucasus, which are heavily dependent on wheat imports from Russia and to a limited degree from Kazakhstan and Ukraine.