To put Georgia in context, at 69,700sqkm it is only about 1000sqkm bigger than Tasmania – but with a population of 3.7 million (compared with Tasmania’s 545,000).

And that’s where the similarities end.

Tasmania has 24 per cent of the state’s land in farming – about 1.7 million hectares.

Georgia’s current arable component is just 4.46 per cent – or about 310,000ha.

In 1992 it was ...