What threat does the new wine law pose to family wineries?

According to the non-governmental organization "Transparency International - Georgia", the amendments to the Law "On Grapes and Wine" increase the risks of corruption and create additional threats of arbitrarily harassing small wineries.

The amendments were adopted in the second reading on March 4.

"The draft law significantly increases the power of the National Wine Agency, which will not only have the function of a controller, but also become a regulator of access to the market" - states "Transparency".

According to these changes, a mandatory consent will be required to grow a commercial vineyard.

"This is the most essential change in the draft law. A new term is added to the law - "consent to grow a vineyard".

Cultivation of a commercial vineyard (a vineyard whose harvest is used for commercial purposes) will be possible only on the basis of the approval issued by the National Wine Agency.

In the current edition, it is written that cultivation of commercial vineyard is free, it is mandatory to use only "permitted grape varieties". AD According to Ali, the protection of the breed is not enough, the permission of the agency is also needed" - writes "Transparency-Georgia".

According to the organization's assessment, the following risk factors are identified with these changes: the law does not establish the prerequisites for granting or refusing consent - all criteria are determined by the order of the Minister of Environment Protection and Agriculture, which is not limited by law. The Minister can make any rule and change it at any time at his discretion. The law does not establish decision-making procedures, deadlines, transparency obligations, or an appeals mechanism. The explanatory note says that "consent is given free of charge", but this is not backed up by the text of the law and can be changed at any time.

Also, according to the organization, the obligations of small wineries are increasing.

Until now, the law exempted producers who produced less than 1,500 liters of wine per year (family wineries) from the obligation to record and report technological processes. With the new change, the obligation of accounting and bureaucratic reporting will be extended to all, including small, family wineries.

According to "Transparency-Georgia", canceling the exception will put thousands of family cellars under a bureaucratic burden. They will be required to maintain complex technological records and send notifications to the agency.

"Today, Georgian high-quality wine, with which the country made its name, is largely produced by small wineries, and under these conditions, a regulation that will aggravate the situation of these small wineries and make it difficult for them to compete with large industrial wineries will be illogical and harmful.

In addition, it increases the risk that the regulatory body will use these obligations to selectively control and harass small producers," the organization believes.

According to the same source, until now it was allowed that up to 15% of grapes from other sub-zones or micro from the zone.

After the change, 100% of the grapes must strictly come from a specific area of ​​origin. The 15% exemption is cancelled.

As "Transparency-Georgia" writes, at the stage of preparation of the draft law, no research was conducted on how many manufacturers may be affected by this restriction and how difficult it will be for them to bring their production into compliance with the new regulations.

"If some producers have been enjoying the 15% benefit for years, the new, tougher norm (which will come into force immediately) can be used as a weapon of selective administrative punishment."

"Transparency-Georgia" believes that the above-mentioned changes raise a number of legitimate and unanswered questions, which the authors of the draft law have not discussed.

"For example, an opaque limitation of the fundamental right of an entrepreneur:

Why is the entrepreneur's fundamental right - to produce and sell a product - limited by a permit introduced with such a vague purpose, the criteria for issuing it, the terms, the procedure for appeal and the standard of transparency Anon (even at the frame level) is not imposed at all?

When the agency implements functions inconsistent with international practice and all decisions are entrusted to the sole command of the minister, what anti-corruption mechanism protects us from using these opaque procedures to selectively control and harass market players?

What is the point of canceling the exemption for small, family wineries and the obligation of complex technological accounting? Will this disproportionate burden threaten to drive small producers out of the market or into the shadow economy?

If the explanatory card states that the permission to grow a vineyard is granted "free of charge", why is this most important entry not directly reflected in the text of the law to exclude the imposition of additional fees for winegrowers by order of the minister in the future?" - writes "Transparency Georgia".

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Post author: travelnews.ge