Wine export from Georgia decreased 28.6% from 2.18m bottles to 1.566m bottles in Q1, 2009 compared to Q1, 2008.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Ukraine remains the top export market as 36.7% of Georgian wine goes there. But exports to this country slumped 57% from 1.347m bottles to 572 thousand bottles.

Belarus is in second place and Kazakhstan is the third largest destination country where Georgian wine went.

Georgian wine is available for the first time in wine stores in Sweden, Kyrgyzstan and China with 40 000, 39 000 and 37 000 bottles sold there, respectively.

Wine was exported to 33 countries in total this year while only 22 countries were selling it a year earlier.

The wine industry is one of the most important branches of the Georgian economy. It was a top export commodity in the Soviet times but disappeared even from the top 10 list now.