The Strategy of Georgian Wine Access to The UK Market Was Discussed in Tbilisi
With National Wine Agency invitation, famous master of wine Sarah Abbott and wine writer Robert Joseph came from UK to visit Georgia, they discussed the strategic plan of Georgian wine access to the UK market together with Georgian wine companies.
Representatives of 35 Georgian wine companies participated in the two-day seminar, the parties discussed the main activities and messages that will support Georgian wine access to the UK market and accordingly, sales progress in the country.
The National Wine Agency deputy chairman, Andro Aslanishvili mentioned, that the major effort of the office is to diversify and progress the export market.
“The strategy of National Wine Agency is to diversify the wine market and we do our best to achieve this goal on various markets, especially on the stabile and sustainable ones. In this direction, we have chosen such strategic market, as UK, we collaborate with wine magister Sarah Abbott and wine writer Robert Jozeph. They have special knowledge of the UK market and their practical advices and recommendations can save the financial and time resources of the companies” - stated Andro Aslanishvili.
As Sarah Abbott mentioned, the winemakers of Georgia got deep understanding of the UK market, what the UK market can offer them and what they need to bring their wines to this bold and internationally significant market.
“The objective has been for us, as experts and consultants, to deepen our understanding of the needs, styles and the diversity of Georgian winemaking. Georgian wine is still a niche product on the UK market, there are small number of very ardent fans, for example Georgians and Russians, who are living in the UK and they love Georgian wine and have a great respect and affection for it and there is another sector of wine-lovers for Georgia, they tend to be younger wine-lovers, who are looking for new and different products and they are attracted by Georgian sort of organic kind of producing and very specific methods, such as Qvevri as well as Georgia\'s unique great varieties, particularly Saperavi” - stated the magister.
Robert Joseph considers, that Georgian wine will be attractive for young British people especially.
“I think it\'s a very exiting time for Georgia, because everything is new in a lot of different markets in the UK, people have never experienced Georgian wine, so it\'s a very new thing, it\'s not going to be easy, to introduce anything new to a market is always challenging, but there are people in the UK, particularly the young ones, who are looking for new experiences, I think Georgia can offer some of these new experiences. It was extremely gratifying to see the number of top producers, small producers and new producers all in one room, all listening and asking questions and taking part and that\'s one of the thing that I think is going to be hugely important for Georgia, to see Georgian wine producers working together, not against each other, when they are in a market like UK or the US, they can\'t compete with each other, they have to work together to build the Georgian reputation, the Georgian image and that will happen, what we\'ve seen today shows that” - mentioned Robert Joseph.
During the seminar, there were individual and group work with wine companies. Georgian wine producers had the opportunity to take consultations British wine professionals about innovative strategies concerning popularization of Georgian sparkling wine and rose wine, to learn UK wine market and pricing policy.
Within the framework of the seminar, Georgian wine degustation and presentation was organized.
With National Wine Agency and wine industry joint decision, UK has stood out as one of the potentially increasing market for Georgian wine export since 2014. According to the marketing strategy of the Agency, Georgian companies participate in different exhibitions and degustations in UK, wine tours are organized in Georgia for English wine professionals. The aim of the activities mentioned above is to increase publicity and popularity of Georgian wine in London – the city considered as the developer of trends and taste in wine industry. With sequential and effectual collaboration with Georgian wine-makers, it is possible to create increasing tendency of Georgian wine export in England.
According to the data of 2016, nearly 98 thousand bottles of wine has been exported from Georgia to the UK, that is 28% higher than the data of 2015. The export has also started actively in the current year, according to the data of January, nearly 14 thousand bottles of wine has been exported, that is 113% higher, than the similar data of the last year.