Marine fishing cluster diagnostic Study

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| METHODOLOGY 
A combination of approaches including the review of the relevant documents, secondary data sources, 
individual interviews and focus group meeting with key stakeholders were deployed for conducting the 
diagnostic study. 
In total, 15 in-depth interviews and 1 focus group meeting were conducted. The distribution of 
interviews is given in the table below: 
Table 1: Number of in-depth interviews conducted 
CORE ENTERPRISES AND SUPPORT INSTITUTIONS
NUMBER OF INTERVIEWS
Core Enterprises 
11 
Associations 
2 
Government Agency 
2 
Total Number 
15 
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| DEFINITION OF THE MARINE FISHING CLUSTER
The marine fishing industrial cluster in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti Region comprises from the following 
interrelated principal activities: fish capturing, primary production, processing and sales. 
The primary activity of the process is fish capturing in the Black Sea. Main actors are Small-Scale Marine 
Fishing Companies (SMFCs) possessing up to 30-35 vessels, local fish processing License Holder 
Companies (LHCs) with their own vessels, and Turkish fishing seiners that are firstly authorized and also 
hired by Georgian processing facilities to capture fish in the Black Sea coastal strip. 
Part of SMFCs
brings small quantities of captured fish to their facilities for primary production. The 
business operations include fish salting, curing in smoke, vacuum packing, and freezing. Some of them 
use refrigerators to freeze part of captured fish for a longer period and sell the product as animal and fish 
feed. Products are mostly sold on the local market. 
The vast majority of captured fish is being processed through complex production processes carried out 
by 5 LHCs in plants located in Poti. LHCs process fish captured by Georgian SMFCs, their own and Turkish 
vessels. During fish processing, raw fish is being transformed into fish meal and oil traded at export 
markets. An absolute majority of processed fish sales comes on the Turkish export market; only a minor 
share on the EU market and other neighbouring countries. According to the interviewed respondents, 
Turkish seiners, being hired by LHCs for fish capturing, send part of raw captured fish to Turkey through 
transporter vessels. 
Local market actors are local bazaar fish markets, as well as a middleman who purchases fish from 
Georgian Fishermen and resells it to local fish markets. The diagram below depicts core actors of the 
cluster and their interrelation starting from fish capturing to final market sales. 

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