The FINANCIAL — “6,000 tons of tomatoes which are imported in winter from Turkey into Georgia can be substituted by building greenhouses on 20 hectares of land,” said Zurab Chekurashvili, Agriculture Sectors Deputy Component Leader at USAID.
“The inexorable amount of tomatoes (up to 7,000 tons per year) imported from Turkey is of poor quality. The reason why Turkish tomatoes are cheap and of such quality is that in Turkey there are 3 harvests taken throughout a yield (within a year). Hence the first tomatoes go to EU countries, the second part is distributed throughout the country (in Turkey) and the third one comes to Georgia, which is in fact unsavoury,” declared Chekurashvili.
USAID’s four-year, 40.4 million USD EPI (economic prosperity initiative) project with a strong agriculture component targets the following agriculture sectors, those of: wine, nuts, fruits, vegetables and value chains of hazelnuts, fresh fruits, berries, processed fruits, fresh vegetables, processed vegetables and root crops.
Productive use of nuts
“In order to increase the production of nuts, farmers have to test the land and the types of plants they use. i.e. in Oregon 3 tons of nuts are produced on one hectare of land whilst in Georgian only 1 ton is produced on the same amount of land.”
“The price of wine and nuts commodities will be rising in the coming two years thus we are targeting both of the products. Within the scope of the project we’ll be connecting producers to those willing to buy nuts/wine in Asia. Despite the fact that, for instance, Turkey produces a large amount of nuts, it still can’t satisfy the world demand and a number of countries are looking for other suppliers of nuts, like from Georgia.”
“What’s also important about the nuts business is that Georgia should not be solely focused on primary use (with shells) of nuts but productive – that’s separating them and using the shells for other purposes like heating and the making of furniture materials, like is done in other countries,” said Chekurashvili.
Problems vis-à-vis certification
Georgia’s average farm is less than 1 hectare. Still, the question remains whether the yields would actually improve if the sector was consolidated and certified.
“Equipping the number of laboratories which can be used for support is one of our priorities. They, first of all, need to be accredited and also small farmers should be somehow united and certified at the same time. For instance if we take Herbia Mtsvanili – there is only 1 hectare of land which can’t satisfy demand on overseas markets; in addition there are plenty of small producers – thus what we want to do is to create something like a cooperative, which will be certified and will be able to easily export the goods collectively.”
“Certifying of the enterprise isn’t an easy job as well as being costly. Certifying one medium size factory/firm costs about 30,000-50,000 USD. This is through bringing those experts to our country.
Certification starts from the basis of the farm land till the final product, and there are a lot of processes. That’s why we’ll be working in this direction to help small farmers carry their voice to the certifying institutions.”
“Despite the fact that Georgia has some privileges whilst exporting to the EU, certification is still a problem for the majority of small farmers,” said Chekurashvili.
“Whereas currently there are only 15-20 million bottles of wine exported, there is real potential to expand the production to other markets. Fortunately Georgian wine is an average price wine of high quality which is its competitive advantage.”
“For instance, for Georgian wine producers the US market has become spotlighted due to the reason that the number of people there from post soviet countries is many, who actually have a sense of nostalgia for Georgian wine as they are familiar with it. For this reason, grossly entering the US market will be enough for Georgian producers to realize their goals.”
“Developing wine tourism and opening online shops will be playing a huge role in promotion of Georgian wine as well.”
“Controlling wine on tap in Georgia is a huge problem especially in the restaurants of Georgia as there is no mark assigned for where the wine comes from etc.”
“The example of Argentina is very interesting in this regard: as wine on tap can only be found in 5 litre bottles which are certified and branded, the latter wine is for middle and lower income families. Thus a similar practice will work in Georgia if such regulations were enforced. Despite the fact that wine factories aren’t spoiling wine with admixtures anymore, still the number of wines on tap is tremendous and needs to be regulated somehow,” said Chekurashvili.
Big need for nursery gardens
“Georgia really lacks the technology and the situation is bad as the majority of gardens are 50-60 years old. That’s why the scope of our project is to create nursery gardens which will be certified as the buyer at a nursery should know in advance what plant he/she is buying and what it will be once it grows up. Now, for instance, if you buy a plant on the way to your home country, it may turn out after a year to be a thoroughly different plant to that which you thought you had purchased.”
“The Adjarian Government has asked us to help them provide new plants/nursery as within 5-6 years orange and tangerine plants could otherwise disappear,” Chekurashvili said to the FINANCIAL.
Greenhouses
According to Dennis Zeedyk: Agriculture Sectors Component Leader at USAID, one square metre of greenhouse will cost 100 USD for Georgian farmers, thus to build a 1,000 sq. metre greenhouse which is a standard one – will cost about 100,000 USD. But in addition the greenhouse operation costs are not included in that and the latter cost depends on what sort of heating is used and the types of crops.
“We’ll be having a roundtable event on June 3 where potential financers, suppliers and other personalities will be attending. The second thing is once you have a greenhouse you should know how to run it properly. That’s why one of the programmes we’re implementing is an educational one as we want a number of young students from Georgia to study in the US for one year. Thus once they come back they’ll be able to properly run those installed greenhouses.”
“As a part of our project there are also grants available in order to induce people willing to run greenhouses in Georgia.”
“Drip irrigation systems are also important especially for vegetables and in this direction leasing companies should be interested in financing the purchase of those techniques,” said Zeedyk to The FINANCIAL.
USAID EPI project support to farmers
The USAID EPI project will support farmers by providing technical assistance – hazelnut production guide & production training; vegetable budget handbook – more HVA; fruit budget handbook.
Building linkages on hazelnut export marketing; fruit logistics; enhance access to credit and leasing.
“We want to create an information system; with Millennium support we’ve created 33 farmer centres and 14 mechanization centres, now far more mechanization centres will be added with the support of USAID.”
“Those information centres will give farmers access to information about the marketplace: prices, wholesale prices, competitors, etc. The information itself will be collected from farmers on the regional level of Georgia and then the information will be redistributed to the same farmers,” said Chekurashvili from USAID to The FINANCIAL.
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