April 23 2007, 11:06

Ukraine exports shelled walnut to Georgia

The Technical Assistance project AgVANTAGE informed ""Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" journal" that Ukraine supplied a large shipment of shelled walnut to Georgia past week. Up to this moment mostly Georgian walnut and the periodical supplies of walnut in nutshell of Ukrainian origin have covered the inner consumption. However, many areas of old walnut trees were cut down in view of a great demand for walnut wood in the recent years. As a result, the prices for this product started to grow on the inner market.

We'd like to mention that walnut is widely used in Georgian cookery; the walnut consumption per capita in Georgia is considered to be one of the largest in the world. Georgians use walnut for the main course, hors d'oeuvres, salads, sauces and confectionery.

To the opinion of Malkhaz Bregadze, the Coordinator of the Market Information, AgVANTAGE Project, investments to the commercial walnut production in Georgia may pay off very profitably at the present moment. The commercial production of walnut is actively developed in Ukraine; at the same time, mostly population grows walnuts in Georgia. The wholesale price for the shelled walnut reaches $10-11/kg on Georgian market now; so the business seems very attractive. Talking about Ukraine, 60 to 90 thousands tons of walnuts are annually harvested in the country. The production tends to grow and to create rather good opportunities for this product export.