BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 7
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The harvest of open field blueberries in Georgia will begin in the next few days and it is already clear that the demand and the prices for the blueberries will be high, said the expert in blueberry production and co-founder of Agritouch Georgia Ekaterina Vepkhvadze, Trend reports via EastFruit
According to Vepkhvadze, the main market for Georgian blueberries, most likely, as in the previous few years, will be Russia. At the same time, the demand for blueberries has already been recorded from other countries, including the EU and countries from the Persian Gulf.
The blueberry harvest in Georgia this season, according to the forecasts of industry participants, will be about 1000 tons, the main production region, as before, will be Guria, the expert said.
Blueberry Farm, which owns 27 hectares of blueberry plantation in the Ozurgeti region (Guria region, Western Georgia), expects its first harvest this year – around 40-50 tons. they will start harvesting blueberries from June 5th. Meanwhile, according to Vepkhvadze, several exporters from Russia and Europe have already registered their interest in the product and the price discussed were around – $5.5 - $6.5 per 1 kg.
Agritouch, owns a cold storage facility, including equipment for cooling, packaging, freezing, and deep freezing of fruit and vegetable products and purchases blueberries from small farmers. The company already received orders for this season.
According to her, the exports of blueberries to the countries of the Persian Gulf this season, as in the past, will be carried out by air transportation from Tbilisi by passenger planes, which naturally limits the volume of batches. As for the Russian direction, again, traditionally, blueberries will be sent there by refrigerated trucks.
As Vepkhvadze noted, this year Agritouch was the first company from Georgia to become a member of the International Blueberry Organization (IBO), which unites the largest industry players on a global scale.
“Membership in this organization gave us access to the exchange of experience and to the latest achievements in the blueberry production,” she stressed.
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