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

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Otar Shamugia "The new program is crucial, as it enables each farmer to deliver the overall amount of non-standard apple to companies"

At the end of the Government session, during the meeting with the representatives of the media,  the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Otar Shamugia made a statement about the program ‘’ Promoting the Sale of Non-standard Apples".

As stated by the Minister, Georgia received an abundant harvest of apples this year, approximately 120,000 tonnes, therefore, conducting harvest in an organized manner, including post-harvest handling and storage of crops to the greatest extent possible is crucial for farmers.

"The state carries out several programs for financing and promoting the entire value chain in agriculture production, the aforementioned programs include the program "Plant the Future" as well, which enabled planting of new apple orchards on approximately 1700 ha of agricultural land area across the country.

It should be mentioned, that a drip irrigation system is installed in these intensive gardens, thereupon, the respective gardens will give us much more quality crops in the forthcoming years, than the old ones. Moreover, such products have no problems in sales and will be sold for an appropriate price. 

The new program implies that we will have to process approximately 40,000 to 50,000 tonnes of non-standard apples this year, depending on the yield.

Each enterprise that receives non-standard apples from a farmer and pays him at least 24 tetri per kilogram will receive 10 tetri as a subsidy from the state. Therefore, it is important to deliver whole non-standard apples for further processing.  


 About 20 enterprises will be involved in the process, which will use the mentioned products as raw materials and will receive concentrated apple juice, apple puree and other products, a large part of which will be exported, including to the European Union.  The operation of the entire chain is crucial and necessary for the promotion of the industry", said Mr. Otar Shamugia.


The Minister also mentioned, that from August 30, the coordination headquarters will be operated, which will embrace the employees of the Rural Development Agency, the Ministry and other relevant agencies, so that the process will be coordinated to the greatest degree possible and each farmer will be able to deal will the post-harvest handling and storage of the crop.