Global baby food company announces Georgia expansion

One of the world’s leading organic baby food producers is expanding its presence in Georgia.

Stephen Hipp, shareholder of Austrian Baby Food Company HIPP, announced the company planned to increase its production area and capacity of HIPP Georgia, the local branch of the international company, after learning about Georgia’s potential to produce ecologically clean fruit and vegetables.

He also noted the company planned to invest €2 million (about 5 million GEL) in a fruit and vegetable plant in Georgia’s Kakheti region.

Hipp discussed his future business plans at a meeting with Georgia’s Agriculture Minister Otar Danelia today in Tbilisi.

Currently, initial discussions were taking place surrounding the establishment of a storage facility for fruit and vegetables. This was one of the projects HIPP planned to implement in Georgia.

On another note, Hipp said the company intended to invest €2 million in Kakheti, Sighnaghi for a fruit and vegetable processing project.

HIPP is already present in the Georgian market. For a number of years the Austrian-based company has operated a fruit concentrate processing enterprise in Khashuri, western Georgia.

Meanwhile at today’s meeting Danelia introduced the various projects implemented in Georgia in the agricultural sector, which aimed to increase the capacity of agricultural products and attract more foreign investments in Georgia.

The Minister made particular mention of the new Governmental project "Plant the Future”, for which 15 million GEL had been allocated to co-finance the creation of nurseries and gardens across the country. This budget will be used to help entrepreneurs over the next two years, Danelia said.