BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 7
By Tamilla Mammadova - Trend:
Georgia's Blueberry Farm company plans to increase blueberry plantations to 50 hectares in 2021, as well as to build an enterprise for the storage and processing of blueberries, Trend reports citing EastFruit analytical portal.
According to Yekaterina Vepkhvadze, co-founder of the Blueberry Farm, intensive blueberry orchards on 21 hectares were laid by the company in the Ozurgeti district of Guria region with state support in 2019. Taking into account the soil and climatic conditions, several American varieties (Legacy, Bluegold, Gupton and others) were selected and the seedlings were imported from Poland.
“In total, we planted 67,200 seedlings. We expect the first commercial harvest of blueberries in 2022,” she said.
According to Vepkhvadze, in 2021, the company intends to develop the remaining 29 hectares of its agricultural land and plant blueberries again. At the same time, the company plans to devote part of the territory for the cultivation of organic blueberries. In a few years the company plans to reach a yield indicator of about 600 tons of berries per year.
“Next year, we plan to build an enterprise that will include refrigeration facilities, as well as equipment for processing berries,” she said.
Blueberry Farm considers the European Union and the Gulf countries the most promising markets for its products. At the same time, the company plans to place a certain part of the products on the local market.
“However, these are only preliminary plans; everything will depend on the situation on the world market. We have already begun working on an anti-crisis plan that will help us build our activities in the coming years,” said Vepkhvadze.
---
Follow the author on Twitter: @Mila61979356