TBILISI, JUNE 14 2017 (The Bulletin)  — Georgia’s parliament started processing a law that will forbid foreigners from owning farmland, despite warnings from experts that the ban will stunt the growth of the agriculture sector.

The Georgian Dream government dominates parliament and has said that it is bringing in the law because of the pressure on farmland, although opponents have said that its main aim is to roll back another key policy of former president Mikheil Saakashvili.

Levan Davitashvili, the minister of agriculture, said that under the new legislation foreigners would only be allowed to own land if they inherited it, if they married into it or if they already had a permanent residence or an investment permit.

“Land is a particularly limited resource and, with the population growth, land resources are becoming more significant and valuable,” media quoted him as saying. “It is crucial that agricultural land has to be for Georgian citizens and they have to have the property rights.”

When he was in power between 2003 and 2013, Mr Saakahvili had courted Afrikaans to move to Georgia from South Africa, promising them access to good farmland. He followed this up with campaigns to persuade Indian farmers to also move to Georgia too. Essentially he wanted the expertise and investment potential the foreign farmers would bring.

But alongside the expertise, the farmers from South Africa and India generated resentment and frustration from locals, something that the Georgian Dream picked up on and campaigned to change.

After winning a majority of MPs in Parliament in 2012, the Georgian Dream brought in a moratorium to suspend the sale of farmland to foreigners. This moratorium was declared unconstitutional in Dec. 2014 and revoked.

Earlier this month, with the Georgian Dream now dominating Parliament, constitutional amendments were passed banning land sales to foreigners. The new law being discussed, though, will come into play before constitutional amendments.

Phatima Mamardashvili, head of the Agricultural Policy Research Centre, said the ban was negative.

“Our agriculture is so unproductive. We should welcome any investment,” she told The Bulletin. “Foreign investor bring knowledge, capital, new technology. These new limitations are negative. foreign investment flow will be reduced. Georgia will be a less attractive market.”

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)