Within the framework of the government coordination commission, we want to closely study the price-formation chain and provide the public with transparent information explaining why markups exist on essential goods, and of course, to subsequently use all available levers. Our main goal is for prices to decrease, said Levan Zhorzholiani, Head of the Administration of the Government of Georgia.

According to him, prices in Georgia are significantly higher compared to European prices, even for identical products that are on store shelves both in Europe and in Georgia.

“The Prime Minister noted in an interview that for a specific product sold in the same European and Georgian retail chain, the Georgian price is three times higher than the European one, which cannot be explained by any logic. Even if you bought that rice a plane ticket and flew it in, such a markup still wouldn’t make sense. The Ministry of Economy conducted an initial study and found an average markup of 86%. That means in some cases it is 150%, in others 70%, with an average of 86%. We believe the commission should thoroughly examine the price-formation chain. Naturally, this information must be communicated to the public in a very transparent manner — why markups exist on essential goods — and then all levers must be used. Our main goal is for prices to go down,” Zhorzholiani said.

He also noted that by the end of April there will already be certain tangible results, although price reductions may occur even before then.

“Unfortunately, there are people in the country who support high prices, driven by certain political and mercantile goals. There is no counterargument when the government is trying to reduce prices on certain products — and we are talking not only about food products, as the commission’s mandate also covers fuel and medicines. Today, within the commission’s format, we will meet with distributors; on Monday we will meet with manufacturers, followed by pharmaceutical companies, and finally discussions will focus on fuel. The scheme is the same everywhere, so we can work using a similar method. We believe that by the end of April we will already have certain tangible results. However, we also think that price reductions may be possible even before that, during the ongoing process within the government administration as part of the government commission,” Levan Zhorzholiani said.