CNFA Develops Post-Harvest Infrastructure in Georgia
By: George Managadze
Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture (CNFA) recently joined U.S. and Georgian officials to celebrate the opening of two USAID-funded agricultural facilities that reduce post-harvest losses and secure farmer incomes in the Kakheti region of Georgia.
U.S. Ambassador Kelly C. Degnan, Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia Levan Davitashvili, USAID representatives and local farmers were among the attendees who convened on Oct. 2 for the opening ceremony of the Agricultural Cooperative Agrostore cold-storage facility, and the launch event for the new Kakhetis Tkhili Ltd. hazelnut husking, drying and storage (HDS) facility.
Agricultural Cooperative Agrostore — a recently established agricultural cooperative with approximately four hectares of raspberry and persimmon orchards — created the new 300 square meter cold-storage facility to store its own produce and provide pre-cooling and cold-storage services to neighboring producers of strawberries, raspberries, peaches and persimmons.
The new facility was developed with in-kind support from the USAID Agriculture Program, a five-year initiative to accelerate the growth of agricultural sub-sectors that demonstrate strong potential to create jobs and increase incomes and revenues for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. The support came through the program’s competitive matching grant program, which provides financial assistance to increase post-harvest and storage infrastructure in Georgia.
In total, the new cold-storage facility will enable around 30 small and medium-sized farmers based in three villages to sustain product quality and extend product shelf-life. It will also allow the cooperative to buy fresh raspberries, persimmons and pomegranates from 15 small and medium-sized farmers — resulting in a cash market worth about $308,000. The cooperative, which will supply the produce to both local and export markets, estimates that it will generate more than $1 million over the life of the project from the sale of the fruits, and from revenues from its new pre-cooling and cold-storage services. The project also will facilitate the creation of jobs though the hiring of six staff members and 148 seasonal workers.
The second facility launched during the Oct. 2 event — the Kakhetis Tkhili Ltd. hazelnut HDS facility — was jointly financed by the Rural Development Agency and the Georgia Hazelnut Improvement Program (G-HIP). Implemented as an alliance between USAID and AgriGeorgia Ferrero, G-HIP leverages market-based approaches and solutions to increase the quality and quantity of Georgian hazelnut production, improve processing capabilities, and establish market linkages that allow smallholder growers to reach lucrative markets.
Kakhetis Tkhili, established in January 2014, is in the Lagodekhi Municipality of the Kakheti region, an area well known for growing hazelnuts due to its fertile soil and amenable climate. Currently, the total hazelnut orchard area in these villages exceeds 4,000 hectares and yields an average of more than 4,000 tons of hazelnuts per year. This represents almost seven percent of Georgia’s hazelnut production.
The new HDS facility will help improve the quality of the nuts and reduce postharvest losses, resulting in higher incomes for smallholder growers. The facility, which can dry 1,000 tons — and store 500 tons — of hazelnuts per year, will serve about 200 farmers with fee-based drying and/or storage services, and create 16 new jobs.
The establishment of the Agricultural Cooperative Agrostore and Kakhetis Tkhili facilities stands as clear evidence of ongoing U.S. Government support for sustained economic development in Georgia.
The author is the Chief of Party of the USAID-funded Georgia Hazelnut Improvement Project (G-HIP), implemented by CNFA.
