Fruit processing enterprises involved in the Georgian state programme enabling farmers to submit their produce accepted over 73,000 tonnes of apples during the last harvest season, with producers making over $6,6 million in delivering their products, Georgia’s Rural Development Agency said on Friday, Trend reports citing Agenda.ge.
The body said the state subsidy promoting production of non-standard apples by farmers, launched in September, had exceeded ₾10 million ($3,7 mln) as part of the harvest.
Within the programme, subsidy for each kilogram of non-standard apples was set at ₾0,10 ($0.03), with processing enterprises that bought each kilo from farmers for at least ₾0,24 ($0.08) qualifying for the subsidy.
Original forecasts had expected between 130-135 thousand tonnes during the harvest season across the country, the agency added.
It also noted 15 processing enterprises had participated in the programme in different regions of Georgia.