December 13 2006, 16:46 AgVANTAGE

The first cold consolidation centers/pack houses open in Georgia

President of Georgia opens the first two modern cold consolidation centers/pack houses for vegetables, mainly fresh culinary herbs sorting, packing and storing in villages - Tkhachiri and Kvitiri of Tskaltubo region (Imereti - West Georgia).

Due to the perishable nature of fresh vegetables and especially culinary herbs, AgVANTAGE assisted its two stakeholders in building modern consolidation center/pack house equipped with forced aired cooling and cold storage facilities.

Each premise size is 325 m2 which can pass almost 1800 tons of herbs during a season (November - May). In the first season each of these cold centers will handle approximately 400 tons of fresh herbs. Most of the produce will go to Ukrainian markets, but companies plan to start introducing fresh herbs to Baltic and East European countries with new - customer appealing packaging.

Georgian companies with AgVANTAGE assistance already shipped the first lots (16 tons) of cooled fresh herbs, namely dill and parsley, to the newly identified significant Ukrainian importer to gain vital experience and get prepared for switching to higher margin and appealing quality products.