BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 22
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The export of organic hazelnuts from Georgia to Europe in the coming years will reach 300-400 tons annually, said CEO of Georgia's Anka Fair Trade LLC Zdenek Radil, Trend reports citing EastFruit information and analytical platform.
One of the activities of Anka Fair Trade company is to promote the cultivation of organic hazelnuts in Georgia
As Radil noted, the company has been engaged in the refinement and export of organic hazelnuts from Georgia for two years, and it also provides consulting and financial assistance to farmers in organizing organic farming and passing the appropriate certification. Today, the company is developing this direction only in the Samegrelo region in Western Georgia
With the support of Anka Fair Trade, 30 hazelnut plantations have received an organic certificate. The total area of plantations in the region, where hazelnuts are grown in accordance with the requirements of organic production, is now about 35 hectares (about 1 hectare per farm), and another 675 hectares are in the process of conversion (transition to organic production), of which 120 ha will be organically certified as early as next year.
“This year we have already purchased 10 tons of organic hazelnuts. The purchase prices for organic hazelnuts are naturally higher, this year the difference was 10 percent. We exported our products to Germany, Italy and Switzerland,” said Radil.
Anka Fair Trade LLC has been founded in 2013 by the Swiss company Anka Food SA in Zugdidi, a city in the western Georgian province of Samegrelo. Anka Food SA has been operating in the hazelnut sector of Georgia since 2009.
Anka Fair Trade is a large producer in, and exporter of, hazelnuts from Georgia. The company owns a modern hazelnut processing company, which introduced the BRC Global Standard.
Anka Fair Trade products include both peeled and unpeeled hazelnuts, as well as semi-finished nuts, including blanched and roasted whole kernels, chopped kernels, flour and pasta.
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