Georgia became a member of FAO in 1995. In 2004, the FAO Sub-regional Representative for Central and Eastern Europe was accredited as FAO Representative in Georgia. The FAO Representation Office was inaugurated in Tbilisi on 4 November 2004, and a post of Assistant FAO Representative (Programme) was established.

FAO mandate in Georgia is to support national efforts to promote food security and sustainable development. FAO priorities in Georgia reflect the objectives and priorities of the Government set in the strategy papers related to agricultural development. In essence FAO assists the Government in creating and implementing an institutional, legal and regulatory environment.

The government approach towards economic and social reforms implies alleviating current poverty by means of intense and sustainable economic growth. Readiness of the Government to target the national development policy, which is aimed at progressive integration into European structures and standards, is widely demonstrated.

At present, the agriculture and food processing sector accounts for 11,6 percent (in current prices) of GDP. More than half of the economically active population of Georgia is engaged in agriculture and slightly less than half of the population lives in rural areas. Development of agriculture is expected to play one of the key roles as a strong poverty-compensating factor for the food-insecure and thus highly vulnerable share of population. The Government’s agriculture development strategy emphasizes expansion of high value-added agricultural and food exports where the country has a comparative advantage.

Furthermore Georgia is a disaster-prone country. In the past it has been frequently affected by serious natural and man-made disasters. Georgia’s institutional disaster management capacities are limited in terms of disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness and response.

Consequently, the Organization discharges its many functions through the offering of technical assistance in the form of project requests made by or through the Government.