BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 3
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The largest walnut orchard in Georgia was laid by Agrovia on an area of 165 hectares and is located in Gurjaani, Kakheti (Eastern Georgia), Trend reports via EastFruit portal.
All 165 hectares are planted with the Chandler variety, which has been planted in stages since 2015. However, this year the area of the garden will reach 210 hectares, as this year the company plans to plant another 65 hectares of intensive walnut orchard.
However, producers do not forget about processing - according to the founder of the company Giorgi Meskhidze, in a few weeks the Spanish Obreo line will be installed for splitting and processing walnuts, right down to packaging. Agrovia plans to use the equipment for processing nuts of the current year harvest, which is expected in the amount of 80-100 tons. The capacity of the equipment is 500 tons per season, but the company plans to gradually increase the volume of processing capacity for walnuts to 1,500 tons per season.
Another walnut processing plant is being built by the Imedi cooperative in Mtskheta, near Tbilisi.
"Due to the pandemic, we did not manage to deliver the equipment from France on time, so we will finish the installation only by November. But by the next season the company will be able to provide cleaning, drying, splitting and sorting of walnuts at a speed of 5 tons per hour," said Mikhail Avaliani, who also owns a Chandler walnut garden on an area of 25 hectares in the village of Mukhrani. This year Avaliani plans to harvest about 20 tons of walnuts from his own garden.
According to EastFruit, the launch of several more processing plants is scheduled for 2021. Thus, starting from the next season in Georgia it will be possible to process about 3,000 tons of walnuts per season.
Most of the intensive gardens in the country are relatively new, as they were established following the launch of the government's Plant the Future program in 2014. Within the framework of the program, 2,808 hectares of intensive walnut orchards were established, which, according to the industry's estimates, should provide more than 12,500 tons of walnut harvest by 2025.
The walnut industry is rapidly developing in Georgia, as a result of which the country exported walnuts worth $1.4 million in 2019.
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