The Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Otar Shamugia, visited the Samegrelo region to get familiar with the hazelnut picking process in the orchard of a farmer, Shalva Chkhenkeli. The Minister, along with the Deputy State Representative of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region, Nino Vibliani, met with the hazelnut farmers who own the industrial hazelnut orchards in the village of Anaklia.

“In the Samegrelo region, we met with farmers and representatives of associations working in the mentioned direction, and first of all, we learned about this year"s harvest, existing challenges, and the crop harvesting /storing process. According to farmers, the production in industrial gardens is fairly good, ranging from one and a half to three tonnes per hectare on average, and the quality is also normal‘’, - said Otar Shamugia.

“The government implements several state programs. We visited the hazelnut garden of one of the hazelnut farmers, who organized an irrigation system on 47 hectares under the state program, which eventually contributed to an increase in yield, better quality production, local employment, and, in general, the creation of domestic product in the country”, - added Nino Vibliani.

The farmer Shalva Chkhenkeli is a beneficiary of the Rural Development Agency, who benefited from the programs “Plant the Future”, and the “Preferential Agro credit”. The farmer received co-financing of GEL 104,250 for arranging the irrigation system in the hazelnut orchard under the program “Plant the Future”, GEL 17,750 for planting a hazelnut orchard on 5 hectares, and GEL 18,800 for setting up a well.