Wine exports are flat, and Russia still takes 63.5% of the value
Georgia exported USD 188.73 million of wine made from fresh grapes in the first nine months of 2026, against USD 189.878 million in the same period of 2025 — a fall of USD 1.147 million, or 0.6%, on preliminary Geostat data. Russia accounted for USD 119.791 million of that, about 63.5% of the total value, down 0.32% in money. The volume shipped to Russia fell further: 40,998.9 tons against 43,405.2 tons, down 5.54%. Less wine, for almost the same money.
The price went up, which is why the money held
Value fell 0.32% to Russia while volume fell 5.54%, which means the average value per ton rose about 5.53%. That is the whole story of the nine months in one line: fewer tons, sold dearer, netting out to roughly the same revenue. Whether that is good news depends on which end of the trade you are at. For a producer, a higher price per ton on a shrinking volume is a margin story and a reasonable one. For anyone modelling the sector, a revenue line held up by price rather than by demand is the weaker of the two foundations, because price can be given back in a single season.
Why a wine statistic is a property statistic in Kakheti
In Kakheti the wine trade is the local economy, and the local economy is what underwrites guesthouse occupancy, restaurant covers, land values and the viability of the small cellar-door businesses that have grown up along the Telavi and Sighnaghi routes over the last decade. A flat export year is not a crisis for any of that. But it does mean the growth that has been funding new rooms and new tasting halls is not coming from export earnings this year, and anyone budgeting a Kakheti project on the assumption of a rising tide should be checking which tide they mean.
Two thirds in one market is the number to sit with
Roughly 63.5% of export value in one destination leaves about 36.5%, or some USD 68.9 million, spread across everywhere else. A sector arranged that way is exposed to a single political or regulatory decision in a way that no amount of domestic quality improvement offsets, and Georgian wine has been through exactly that before. The relevant question for an investor is not whether the concentration is risky — it plainly is — but whether the diversification that the tourism figures show on the visitor side is being matched on the export side. On these nine months, it is not yet.
Written by us from the source linked above, not investment, legal or tax advice. Figures and rules change — confirm anything that matters before acting on it.
