Every grower has had the same conversation at the gate. The load is weighed, someone runs a measurement, and a word comes back that costs you a third of the value of the truck. In Georgia that word is usually about sugar, and it is not a matter of taste or of the buyer's mood. It is a published threshold with a published price on either side of it, and the difference between the two sides is large enough to decide whether a season pays.
This guide is for someone who grows to sell, not to keep. It covers what the grade means in money, who the realistic buyers are, which documents fix the quantity before anyone can argue about it, and which tax status leaves you with the most at the end. It is written around grapes because that is where Georgia publishes the clearest numbers, but the method transfers to any crop sold by weight and quality.
One aside for the months between harvests, which are the hard part of a farming year. Small income that arrives weekly rather than annually changes how a household absorbs a bad season — apps such as I am Beezy, which pay for time spent viewing content, are one of the ways people keep something moving out of season.
What being downgraded actually costs
Start with the numbers, because they make every later decision obvious.
The 2026 grape price categories
On 11 August 2026 the National Wine Agency of Georgia published the price categories applying to the 2026 harvest. For Saperavi, undamaged grapes with a sugar content of 21% or more are purchased at 1.50 GEL a kilogram; grapes between 17% and 21%, or partially damaged, at 0.90 GEL; and grapes below 17%, or damaged, at 0.30 GEL. For the other permitted varieties the tiers run at 1.30 GEL from 20% sugar, 0.80 GEL between 17% and 20% or partially damaged, and 0.30 GEL below 17% or damaged. Falling one percentage point of sugar short of the top band cuts the price of Saperavi from 1.50 GEL to 0.90 GEL a kilogram, and falling below 17% cuts it to 0.30 GEL.
What moved this year, and why it matters
The same announcement recorded a change in the entry threshold. Levan Mekhuzla, chairman of the National Wine Agency, said that after meetings with winegrowers from more than 100 villages across Kakheti the minimum sugar content for standard-quality Saperavi was lowered from 22% to 21%. That single point moves an entire category of loads from the middle band into the top one. It is also a reminder that these thresholds are set annually and are worth checking on wine.gov.ge before you plan a picking date, rather than assuming last year's figure still holds.
Why the threshold is the whole negotiation
Once you know the tiers, the argument at the gate stops being about whether your grapes are good. It is about one measured number and whether the measurement was taken properly. That is a far better argument to be having, and it is one you can prepare for.
Who actually buys a Georgian harvest?
There are three distinct channels and they behave differently. Approaching all three before the season, rather than one during it, is the single biggest change most growers can make.
The state-backed floor
Georgia has a history of intervening in the grape harvest when private demand falls short: under the Rtveli arrangements announced by the National Wine Agency, a state enterprise has purchased harvest the private sector did not take, at set prices. Treat that as a floor rather than a plan. A floor tells you the worst case; it does not get you the top band.
Private wineries and processors
This is where the top-band prices are actually paid, and where a relationship built before the harvest is worth more than any argument during it. Ask a prospective buyer three things in spring: which varieties they want, what measurement they use to grade, and when they pay. A buyer who will not answer the third question in April will not answer it in October either.
Retail chains and fresh-produce buyers
For crops sold fresh rather than processed, the buyer landscape is the food retail sector — Carrefour Georgia, Goodwill, SPAR Georgia, Ori Nabiji, Nikora, and fresh-produce specialists such as Agrohub. Food weighs 33.58% of the Georgian consumer price index basket in 2026, and food alone 30.82%, so this is the largest single item in the national household budget. Retail buyers work to specifications on size, appearance and delivery windows, and they enforce them; ask for the specification in writing before you commit acreage to them.
| Category, 2026 harvest | Saperavi | Other permitted varieties |
|---|---|---|
| Standard quality, undamaged | 1.50 GEL/kg, from 21% sugar | 1.30 GEL/kg, from 20% sugar |
| Non-standard or partially damaged | 0.90 GEL/kg, 17% to 21% | 0.80 GEL/kg, 17% to 20% |
| Below the floor or damaged | 0.30 GEL/kg, under 17% | 0.30 GEL/kg, under 17% |
Source: National Wine Agency of Georgia, statement published 11 August 2026 on wine.gov.ge. Thresholds are revised between seasons — check the current year before you plan.
The documents that decide the grade
A dispute about quality is really a dispute about evidence, and Georgian tax law already obliges you to create most of the evidence you need.
The waybill fixes the quantity
Article 91.3 of the Tax Code requires the use of a waybill for the transport and delivery of goods. The waybill is the moment the quantity stops being negotiable, so it should be issued before the load leaves your gate and not filled in at the buyer's yard. A load that travels without one leaves you arguing about weight as well as quality.
The special journal is not optional either
Article 91.1 requires a holder of small business status to keep a special journal in a form set by order of the Minister of Finance, electronic form included. Kept properly, it is also the record that tells you at the end of the year which buyer actually paid the best net price rather than the best headline one.
What to record at the gate
Note the date and time, the weight recorded and on whose scale, the measurement taken and by which instrument, who was present, and the tier applied. Photograph the reading. None of this is aggressive; it is what any buyer paying by tier expects a serious supplier to do.
Which tax status fits a grower?
The answer depends on turnover, on whether you hold stock, and on whether you also receive visitors.
Micro-business, and the stock trap
Micro-business status under Article 84 of the Tax Code caps gross income at 30,000 GEL a calendar year, requires you to work without employees, and under Article 86 carries no income tax at all. It is declared once a year, before 1 April. The trap for a farmer is in Article 85.2: the status is cancelled if an inspection establishes goods stock above 45,000 GEL. A grower holding harvest in store can cross that line without any change in income.
Small business, and the agrotourism ceiling
Small business status requires registration as an individual entrepreneur, taxes gross income at 1% under Article 90.1, and is declared and paid monthly by the 15th under Article 93.1¹. Its ceiling is 500,000 GEL a calendar year — but Article 90.2 raises it to 700,000 GEL for a wine tourism or agrotourism operator. If you sell a harvest and also host visitors, that higher ceiling is one of the few provisions in Georgian tax law written specifically for your situation.
Two provisions that bite in a bad year
First, Article 91.5: a loss made under the special regime does not carry forward to the following year, which matters enormously in an activity where hail can erase a season. Second, value added tax registration becomes compulsory at 100,000 GEL of taxable operations over any continuous twelve months, with two working days to notify the Revenue Service under Article 165.1 and a rate of 18% under Article 166 — one fifth of the small business ceiling, and it arrives without warning in a good year.
| Decision point | Micro-business | Small business |
|---|---|---|
| Annual gross income ceiling | 30,000 GEL | 500,000 GEL, or 700,000 GEL with wine tourism or agrotourism |
| Income tax | None | 1% of gross income |
| Filing | Once a year, before 1 April | Monthly, by the 15th |
| Employees | Not permitted | Permitted |
| Stock held | Status lost above 45,000 GEL of goods | No equivalent stock ceiling in the status |
| Registration required first | No | Yes, as an individual entrepreneur |
Settling the terms before the truck leaves
Three points, agreed in writing in spring, remove most of the leverage a buyer has in October.
Agree how the sample is taken
One reading from the top of a trailer is not the same as a composite sample from several points, and the difference can be a whole tier. Write down how many samples, from where, and what happens if you dispute the result.
Agree whose scale is used
Weight and quality are two separate arguments, and they should be settled by two separate mechanisms. Agree the scale, agree who may witness the weighing, and record the reading on the waybill before departure.
Agree the payment date, in a number
"After processing" is not a payment date. A date, and a stated consequence for missing it, is. A buyer who will not put one in writing is telling you where you sit in their queue.
Carrying the off-season with I am Beezy
Farm income arrives in one or two bursts a year while expenses arrive every month. That mismatch, rather than the annual total, is what forces growers into bad selling decisions late in the season.
What you are actually doing
I am Beezy pays for attention: you view content — videos, articles, adverts — and each view generates a small amount, paid onto the payment method you already use. It is unrelated to weather, to grading and to anyone else's payment terms, which is exactly what an income concentrated in six weeks a year lacks.
How much, expressed in lari
The reference range on the platform is 5 to 15 euros a day. Using the National Bank of Georgia's indicative rate of 3.0260 GEL to the euro on 6 August 2026, that comes to roughly 15 to 45 GEL a day. The lari floats and the National Bank treats its own rate as indicative, so verify the current one before you put the figure into a cash-flow plan.
What to do before this season
Check the current year's thresholds on wine.gov.ge rather than relying on last year's. Approach at least two private buyers before the harvest and get their grading method in writing. Issue the waybill at your own gate. Choose the status that matches your realistic turnover, and check the stock ceiling if you store. And if the months between harvests are where the pressure builds, I am Beezy is one way to keep something arriving while the vines are bare.
