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In France, the representatives of the Scientific-Research Center of Agriculture held meetings on strengthening viticulture and winemaking in Georgia

Levan Ujmajuridze, Director of the Scientific-Research Center of Agriculture and Davit Magradze, Head of the Vineyard Cadastre Division of the National Wine Agency, met with the Occitanie-Montpellier President Sylvain Labbé of the French National Institute of Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE), on issues of vine genetic resources for finding, studying, exchanging, responding to climate change, on organizing plant genetic bank arrangements. The Georgian side was also in the collection of INRAE vine genetic resources, where it got acquainted with the ongoing and ongoing works in the field of protection, reproduction and study of vine genetic resources. With the Director of the Vine Genetic Resources Collection, Cecil Marshall, the parties discussed the creation of a database for the management of protected species in the Jighaura Collection, the exchange of technical staff, the organization and implementation of joint scientific projects and research, and the exchange of gene pools between collections. The laboratory capacity building has been identified as a priority in Molecular Genetics, Plant Ecophysiology, Tissue Culture, Plant Genetic Bank, and others. The vassal collection is one of the most advanced in the world, possessing a large gene pool of the genus ,,Vitis’’ - wild species, vine varieties and rootstocks.

Within the framework of the working visit, the Georgian side visited the French Vine and Wine (IFV) Genetic improvement and Adaptation of Mediterranean and Tropical Plants (AGAP) and Agro Montpellier institutes. At the IFV meeting, the focus was on research into the creation of initial and basic planting material, clone selection achievements, and the emergence of new varieties through hybridization. Davit Magradze delivered a lecture on Georgian viticulture and Georgian vines at the University of Agro Montpellier, where Georgian youth also study.

A group of French scientists will pay a return visit to Georgia in May this year.