BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec.16
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
In 2020, despite the crisis situation created by the pandemic, the export rates of Georgian products are growing at a record high, said Agriculture Minister Levan Davitashvili, Trend reports via Georgian media.
He made the remark when presenting the annual report.
He pointed out increased exports of peaches, apples, hazelnuts, persimmons, tangerines and blueberries.
He said that as of December 13, Georgia exported over 25,000 tons of peaches, 16,000 tons of tangerines, 12,000 tons of hazelnuts, 10,000 tons of persimmons, 6,000 tons of apples and 600 tons of blueberries.
The minister said that 280,000 tons of grapes were harvested this year which was a record number in the past 30 years.
Davitashvili noted that about 25,000 grape growers handed over the grapes to the wineries. They received up to 310 million lari ($94.4 million) in revenue.
The grape harvest 2020 was subsidized.
"Thousands of wine growers were given the opportunity to sell 1 kg of Rkatsiteli for 80 tetri (24.39 cents). If not for the state subsidy, due to the market demand, farmers would have had to sell 1 kg of Rkatsiteli for 50 tetri (15.24 cents), which could not cover the costs. The sum of grape subsidies reached 51 million lari ($15.5 million)," said Davitashvili.
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