Good harvest of citruses in Georgia

The 2011 citrus harvest exceeded by two times last year’s harvest in Georgia. Around 85,000 tonnes of citruses have been gathered in Georgia this year, but there are certain problems on selling this yield. In 2010 Georgian citruses were exported to nine countries. Ukraine and Belarus were the leaders among them. There are some customs problems in Ukraine however. Customs duty is the reason there and therefore the price on products have also gone up.

Armenia imports around 10% of the total harvest. Not much is exported to Azerbaijan. However Georgian tangerines are re-exported from Ukraine to Russia as well. Some Georgian companies have started exporting citruses into Russia. Information appeared that chief sanitary doctor of Russia Genady Onishenko plans to visit Georgia to study the issue of whether Georgian products can return to the Russian market.