In Georgia's north-western Adjara region, a high quality, bumper orange season is expected. The typical citrus season runs from November to January and in these months about 60,000 tonnes of citrus fruit is expected to be picked in Adjara and around the country.
The majority of the harvested fruit will be exported abroad, while about 10,000 tonnes will be sent for industrial processing.
The Government of Georgia was working hard to diversify its export markets and sell Georgian citrus further afield.
Latvia and Uzbekistan were among the new markets that were interested in importing Georgian citrus fruit, announced Georgia’s Ministry of Agriculture.
Last year Georgia exported more than 26,000 tonnes of citrus fruit to Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Belarus and other nations.
As a way to increase awareness and export potential of Georgian citrus abroad, a special forum is planned in Adjara for later this month and representatives from large citrus exporter countries have been invited.
Like previous years the Government will help farmers and industry players by opening special coordination centres and launch a hotline where they can get a range of support and information.
Georgia’s Agriculture Ministry said a special electronic database will be created where all harvested citrus will be registered and people will be able to get updated information about this year’s harvest online.
Looking forward the Ministry will analyse the local market and after this it will decide whether or not to subsidise this year's orange harvest.
Source: agenda.ge
