New fruit factory opens in western Georgia, employs 30 people

A new freeze-drying factory has opened in Georgia’s western region of Samegrelo.

Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili and Minister of Agriculture Levan Davitashvili opened the new factory and familiarised themselves with its production processes.

The new factory opened by Gemuani Ltd. is located in Zeda Etseri village in Samegrelo’s Zugdidi Municipality and will provide over 22 tons of different dried fruits per year. 30 people are employed in the new factory, and the dried fruit will be sold both on local and foreign markets.

Owning 30 hectares of land, Gemuani promises to ensure a new high-end processing line that integrates cold storage, instant freezing technology and vacuum packaging to process dried fruits. Equipped with a modern processing facility the factory meets contemporary market requirements and standards and processes fruit from the enterprise's orchard as well as suppliers from surrounding villages.

Gemuani is among the beneficiaries of the state United Agro Project receiving financial support from the Ministry of Agriculture’s Agriculture Projects Management Agency (APMA)’s Preferential Agro Credits Program (484 512 USD) and foreign grants (250 000 USD) comprising 851,024 USD in total.

The Preferential Agro Credit project was launched in 2013 to give better support to new agricultural business owners and improve the ways agricultural businesses operate.

In April the company plans to receive international food safety standard of ISO 22000 with support of the USAID Restoring Efficiency to Agriculture Production (REAP).

Up to now 20 new factories have been opened and 36 enlarged in Samegrelo region under the state program.

Earlier today Prime Minister Kvirikashvili visited the construction works of the water supply system facilities in Zugdidi.

The 85 million GEL ($34.8m/ˆ32.1m*) project is financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and employs 150 people. When complete in 2018 the population of Zugdidi, 84 percent of which based on the 2014 data had no access to piped water, will have a 24-hour water supply. (Agenda.ge)