Strike in Georgia=?UTF-8?B?4oCZ?=s Poti port going on

Armenia and Georgia have failed to reach an agreement over resuming the operation of Georgia's Poti port, says the chief of a cargo company.
"Such is the situation; they do not seem to have reached an agreement. The management says it is necessary to wait a little more. I don't know if it is sabotage … I mean another form of battle," Makar Arakelyan, the director of the cargo transportation company Sati and the president of the Association of Armenian Freight Forwarders, told Tert.am.
The port's director, Joseph Crowley, resigned on Wednesday, Interpress News reported, adding that his former deputy did not attribute his decision to the current developments in Poti.
The first strike in the Georgian port, declared in late October, was interrupted shortly after it began, but the second protest, which began on Thursday, is still going on.
Asked about the possibility of political motives, Makaryan said he cannot form such an opinion without being on the ground. "I cannot form such an opinion from here. Several colleagues now express such views, but we are not interested in that," he said, adding that the situation in the Georgian port is not threatening Armenia with serious problems.
With the costs of container transportation from Poti to Batumi going up for several hundred US Dollars, there is a big likelihood that the Armenian markets will experience a hike. But Makaryan said the situation will not affect the food market as the Poti port is not used for transporting food products and wheat to the country.
"Under a previous agreement, that port served more voluminous vessels called tanks, while Poti served containers which do not normally transport food," he explained.   Read more... (285 words)

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