Gov’t offers financial support to mandarin industry

The Government of Georgia is subsidising the cost of mandarins as a way to support fruit growers and processing companies.

The Ministry of Agriculture announced mandarin processing companies would reap the benefits of the 2 million GEL state subsidy, and be offered a subsidy of 0.10 GEL per kilogram of lower quality mandarins. This aimed to encourage companies to purchase more mandarins.

More than 7.449 tonnes of lower quality mandarins have already been purchased by the fruit processing companies this season. These companies paid more than 1 million GEL for mandarins and benefited 774 thousand GEL state subsidy.

The subsidy program will be issued to fruit processing companies who pay 0.20 GEL or more per kilogram of mandarins which were deemed lower as they were bruised, misshapen or had other imperfections.

Meanwhile, four private plants purchased mandarins from local farmers including Georgian Industrial Asset Management Group, TCF Georgia, GEO-FLOWER and Geo Concentrant.