Anaklia now: dredgers at work, and the state holding the project alone

Two dredging vessels belonging to the Belgian contractor Jan De Nul, the Al-Idrisi and the Tristão da Cunha, are working off Anaklia. The contractor puts their combined capability above 70,000 cubic metres of seabed a day. On land, stone and aggregate are going into the shore-based section of the breakwater. The design calls for a breakwater of about 1,376 metres and a dredged depth in the region of 17.5 metres.

In July the Chinese partner left the project, and the Georgian state took development into its own hands. The declared structure is a landlord port model: the government builds the core infrastructure — breakwater, channel, basic works — and private operators come in later for the terminals themselves. That is a common arrangement for state-backed ports, and it moves the financing question from a consortium's balance sheet onto the budget.

Earlier in the year the state's 2026 allocation to the project was reported cut from GEL 150 million to GEL 50 million, with the difference redirected elsewhere. A port that is now state-developed lives or dies on that line in future budgets rather than on a foreign partner's appetite. Anyone using Anaklia as a reason to buy in Samegrelo should be watching the annual allocation, not the press releases.