Gov’t to subsidise processing of non-standard apples, anticipates 50,000 tonnes of harvest

The Georgian Government will subsidise the harvest of non-standard apples across the country in the coming fall, enabling farmers to submit their produce to processing enterprises, the Ministry of Agriculture said this week.

The Ministry said the state programme supporting sale of non-standard apples would be maintained from previous years to ensure farmers sold their produce, noting it expected this year’s harvest across the country to yield 50,000 tonnes.

As part of the programme, the country’s Rural Development Agency will provide a subsidy of ₾0.1 per kilogramme of the product.

The state subsidy will be given to fruit processing companies that buy 1 kg of non-standard apples from farmers for at least ₾0.25 ($0.09) by December 15, with the enterprises interested in joining the programme required to join its digital registry, the Ministry added.

The body added 21,768 tonnes of non-standard apples worth ₾6.8 million ($2.5 mln) had been processed last year within the programme, with the state providing ₾2.2 million ($816,396) in subsidy.