BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 23
Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
Some 200-300 hectares of blueberries are planted in Georgia every year, Trend reports via the EastFruit portal.
In 2020, Georgia harvested about 750 tons of blueberries, almost 90 percent of which were exported. According to Andriy Yarmak, economist at the Investment Centre of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), if Georgia manages to double its harvest this season, it will become one of the 25 largest blueberry exporters in the world.
A large blueberry producer from Laituri (Guria region, Western Georgia), FCO plans to export about 300 tons of blueberries, of which 180 tons will be its own harvest of Duke, Bluegold, Bluecrop, Toro, Spartan, Brigitta Blue,, Sunrise and Elizabeth varieties. The rest is collected from local farmers. The start of the harvesting is projected from 1st to 10th of June.
Blue valley, which unites four companies (Blue Valley LLC, Motsvi LLC, Kartuli Motsvi LLC and Dzheoberi LLC), expects to harvest 130 tons of blueberries from the fields in Ozurgeti (Guria) this season. The company is experimenting with production of ultra-early blueberries in tunnels, so the first blueberries in Georgia will be available in the first half of May
GeoFresh plans to harvest about 60-70 tons of blueberries from 7 hectares in the Samegrelo region (Western Georgia). Harvesting will begin in early June.
Vartsikhe plantations owns 6 hectares of blueberry plantations in Bagdat region (Imereti region, Western Georgia), where mainly the Chandler variety is grown. The company plans to harvest about 60 tons of export quality blueberries this year.
Khareba’s company will start harvesting blueberries in the Samegrelo region (Western Georgia) in early June. The company plans to harvest up to 50 tons.
Mtsvane Mdelo company, which started planting in Tskaltubo, Imeritinsky region (Western Georgia) in 2019, already expects to harvest 30-40 tons this season. The approximate start dates for the harvest are June 1-5.
Some 25-30 tons will be harvested by Agrotema cooperative, which unites 9 farmers in the Samegrelo region. In total, the area of Legacy blueberry stands is 23.5 hectares.
The new producer - Blueberry farm - will harvest the first 20 tons from the plantations in the Likhauri village in the Ozurgeti region. The harvest is also expected in early June.
The Memoberry company from the Samegrelo region (Western Georgia) expects to harvest 15-20 tons from 9 hectares of early and mid-late blueberry plantations in the Samegrelo region (Georgia). The harvest is expected in June.
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