Government subsidies doubled citrus crop

The Adjara region, the main citrus fruit producer in Georgia, harvested 110, 000 tons of citrus. This is almost double last years total of 52,000 tons, according to the Ministry of Agriculture Georgia.

The Georgian Minister of Agriculture, Shalva Pipia believes that the exporter countries of citrus like Spain, Morocco and Turkey also seen abundant citrus crops this year. This influenced the price and the cost of the product, which decreased international standards for citrus.

"Due to the doubled citrus harvest and the high competition on the international market, the citrus price decreased and amounted to 35-40 tetri per kilogram, Pipia said.

Aimed to assist the farmers, the government allocated 13.8 million GEL to subsidize the citrus crops. For purchasing products, the state pays an additional 10 tetri for per kilogram normal citrus and 5 tetri more for high quality citrus.

Kobuleti processing plant will purchase up to 20 thousand tons of citrus this year.

There are 36 packing plants working in Adjara, which are packaging and sending the products to export.

At present, more than 23 thousand tons of mandarins have been exported from Georgia.|/

Last year, 80% of Georgias citrus harvest went to foreign markets. Around 10% remained on the domestic market as fresh fruit, and the rest went to the processing industry. The main export market for Georgian citrus is traditionally Ukraine, which receives more than 90% of Georgias total citrus exports.

This autumn, Georgian citrus reentered the Russian market, after the seven years of embargo from Moscow. According to Pipia, the government plans to export 50,000 tons of the harvest to Russia.

But the heavy snow on the territory of Georgia the harvesting process of citrus has halted and has interrupted the export that damaged the harvest.

"Due to the terrible weather conditions, the ships could cot managed to enter the black sea ports and more than 200 trucks are stopped on the road, Pipia noted.

The UNM opposition party members blame the government, claiming that the Ministry of Agriculture has not managed to take care of the citrus harvest.

"More than 35% of the citrus is not harvested and only managing to organize the 36 packing plants will not solve the problems. The non-qualified government believed that the buyers would come themselves but in vain. The government thought that the citrus harvest would be as successful as the grape harvest this autumn, due to the opening of the Russian market, stated Petre Tsitskarishvili who is a UNM party member and ex-Minister of Agriculture of Georgia from 2006 to 2008.

Georgian mandarins are packaged for export Photo: The ministry of Agriculture's press office

Pomegranate, lemon and orange are the main citrus fruits that are produced in Georgia. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, citrus plantations in Georgia span 3,000 hectares in total.