Marine fishing cluster diagnostic Study

13.6.
 
EXPECTATIONS ABOUT SECTOR DEVELOPMENT 
First and foremost, every single marine fishing respondent foresees development in the marine fishing 
industry only in the case of renewal of the Georgian vessel fleet, which represents the most significant 
hindering factor for expansion. Some of them also think that such development should be launched by 
reducing the influence of Turkish side during fishing and thus giving opportunities for Georgian vessels to 
increase the volumes of captured fish in the Black Sea. Besides, marine fishing actors named several main 
problems hampering the industry and its development: outdated technologies, import of raw materials, 
and absence of dry dock in Poti. 
The fish processing facilities see sectoral expansion not in the direction of increasing fish volumes, as 

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such quotas are annually set and permitted by the state authorities, but rather founding animal food 
processing factory in Georgia. This would enable them to receive higher value-added fish-derived 
products, which would eventually result in significantly higher export volumes. Besides, the licensed 
companies report a problem of obsolete ship dock existing in Poti, which is a significant constraint in 
industry’s development. 
In solving market related problems, marine fishing companies have communication with local and 
national authorities as well as associations. Through such communication and discussions, they have 
achieved a number of important agreements with state authorities, for example, decreasing the amount 
of penalties charged during fishing process, as well as adding the marine fishing as a priority sector in the 
government program “Produce in Georgia”. 
As claimed by one of the interviewed fish processing facilities, proper communication problem exists 
with respective state authorities and there is a lack of will to consider their recommendations on defining 
annual quotas, significantly hampering the overall business development process. 

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