Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia

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Solomon Pavliashvili attends the online forum " State of the Potato Value Chain and Prospects in Georgia"

Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Mr. Solomon Pavliashvili participated in the online forum ‘’State of the Potato Value Chain and Prospects in Georgia", which was organized by the French Development Agency.

The forum organized within the framework of the project ‘’Finance, Extension and Cooperative Development for Georgian Farmers ‘’(FinExCoop Georgia) was funded by the European Union under the NIF Program Trust Fund.

In the course of the session, the participants highlighted challenges facing the potato sector, as well as issues to improve the potato value chain and increase market access. 

The Deputy Minister noted, that potatoes, as one of the main agricultural crops and widely consumed products in Georgia are taking a significant share in the market. The development of potato culture has a great potential in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region.

"It should be noted, that average yield of potatoes is low in Georgia, resulted from potato seeds, which are not resistant to viruses or other diseases and at the same time are low-yielding varieties. It is important to support and maximize the production of ecologically clean, high quality products, to this end, the Cartu Foundation has set up a microclonal propagation (IN VITRO) for plant species and antiviral planting material laboratory. The laboratory takes in vitro propagation of potato, subsequently, in vitro plants are transferred to a greenhouse to produce mini-tubers. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture is implementing various support measures to support the development of potato sector, which includes a number of areas. " Mr. Pavliashvili stated.

Mr. Georges Dehoux, Programme Manager for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Safety at the Delegation of the European Union to Georgia, Mr. Raphael Jozan, Head of the French Development Agency (AFD), Regional Representative Office for South Caucasus, Mr. Christophe Cordonnier, Head of the Group in FinExCoop Georgia and representatives of relevant public and private sector attended the forum.