Tbilisi residents complain of food price rise because of border closures

Georgia is not threatened by a shortage of foodstuffs; the warehouses have enough of them for several months, the country's authorities have stated. The residents of Tbilisi, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot", have complained about the rise in foodstuff prices.

On March 15, the Georgian Prime Minister, Giorgi Gakhariya, examined the foodstuff stocks in warehouses of major supermarket chains. According to his story, the panic among the population and rumours that a shortage of food may arise in the country are caused by the fact that "people are waiting for the state of emergency," but there are no grounds for announcing it.

At the briefing held on March 15, Maya Tskitishvili, the Minister of Regional Development and Infrastructure, also assured that there is no reason to talk about a shortage of foodstuffs. "There are no interruptions in foodstuff supplies in the country. All retail chains are stocked with multi-month reserves," she has stated.

However, despite the officials' statements, the population prefers to stock up on foodstuffs, as they don't exclude the introduction of quarantine in the country. At the same time, foodstuff prices have gone up. The residents of Tbilisi, interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent, have noted that prices for some foodstuffs went up by 10-15 percent. Some of the respondents said they did not trust the authorities' statement that there is no deficit.

"People are in a panic because of this virus. They believe that quarantine will be announced; there will be no food, and everyone will remain hungry. They buy out everything in bags and, by taking advantage of the situation, sellers raise prices," said Anna, a resident of Tbilisi.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 16, 2020 at 03:52 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.