September 20 2007, 15:53

Sharp increase of apple, grape and tangerine harvest is forecasted in Georgia

Georgian fruit producers inform the specialists of CIS produce business periodical "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" weekly that a very high harvest of apple, grape and tangerine is expected this year in the country.

It has been already obvious that apple harvest is likely to be one of the top record harvests for the recent 5-10 years after a very poor harvest 2006 in Georgia. The farmers expect the prices for their products to dramatically decline. The producers of apple concentrate just appeared in the country two years ago; now they have already been calculating the potential profit with the account to the price growth for this product. We'd like to note that Georgian producers will be able to export a part of quality apples to the market of Ukraine, where rather high prices for this product are expected this year in view of the declined supplies of marketable apples from Poland.

The producers of tangerine will start harvesting their products in November; they also expect the production volumes to significantly increase. To their opinion, the prices for Georgian tangerine will be relatively low in a new season. The creation of several processing enterprises in the country is good news, because the processors are ready to purchase both quality tangerine for freshmarket and small off-standard tangerine as raw material for processing.

We'd like to point out that AgVANTAGE project and "Agrooglyad: Vegetables and Fruits" plan to conduct the first international fruit&vegetable forum "Fruits and Vegetables of Caucasus 2007" on November 27th - 29th 2007 in Georgia; in the framework of this event two-days tour around the main production regions of Georgia, Tbilisi to Batumi, will be conducted. The participants will visit six enterprises specializing on production, post harvest handling, processing and trade of apples, tangerines, fresh herbs, nuts and other products. The detailed information will be posted soon on the portal www.fruit-inform.com in "Conferences" section.

You will also have a chance to meet with the representatives of some large Georgian companies during the fourth international conference "Fruits and Vegetables of Ukraine 2007. Meeting New Leader" to be held on December 4th -6th, 2007 on the territory of the National Complex "Expocenter of Ukraine" in Kyiv. Georgian companies traditionally take an active part in this event.