{"id":19173,"date":"2023-09-06T10:23:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T10:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?p=19173"},"modified":"2023-09-06T10:23:04","modified_gmt":"2023-09-06T10:23:04","slug":"georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia in a blueberries\u2019 crossover moment as state-financed cold storage program begins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Following a phenomenal rise in\u00a0blueberry production in Georgia<\/u><\/a>, the government is co-financing cold storage facilities for farmers.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rural Development Agency (RDA)\u2019s website put up a notice on September 4, 2023 to encourage producers to join the program. The statement tags the program as the \u201cState Co-financing Program of Refrigerated Storage facilities for Berry Crops of Agricultural Cooperatives.\u201d <\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia will coordinate with RDA to launch the funding strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Otar Shamugia, compared the financing model with the existing \u201cFinance the Future\u201d project. Under the latter program, Georgia has been able to cultivate 2,500 hectares of the crop.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The highly perishable nature of\u00a0blueberries<\/u><\/a>\u00a0is one of the challenges that farmers face in\u00a0Guria, the capital Tibilisi,<\/u><\/a>\u00a0Samegrelo and Laituri, and most of the western blueberry-growing regions. This is why the government is not only supporting these areas by expanding acreage but launching cold facilities on farms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Berries perish within a brief period of harvesting under room temperature conditions. However, they can stay fresh for up to two weeks under aseptic refrigeration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Georgian government states that berries\u2019 propagation will continue under organic conditions in orchards. Agro-technology will only enter into the equation during the \u201cstoraging of the harvest.\u201d<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To qualify for this scheme, producers of blueberries will have to join cooperatives, under which co-financing will happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This comes at a time when the export value is rising by leaps and bounds. Between January and July, 2023, Georgia shipped 118% more blueberries than it did in the first half of 2022. The export value so far is $18 million, and is already far above the entire exported crop of 2022<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, the country exported blueberries and cranberries valued $8.21 million<\/u><\/a>. The figure was a major improvement by 47.4% above that of 2021, which stood at $5.57 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The export quantity of Georgia\u2019s blueberries is relatively modest as the production potential is still in the developing stage. In terms of output, 2022 figures were the highest in the previous five years and outstripped the 2018 exports by over 1173%. While the export figures were just 107 metric tonnes in 2018, by the end of 2022 the quantity had risen to 1,363 metric tonnes.<\/u><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By investing in cold storage, Georgia will be taking a share of a growing global crop refrigeration industry that was worth $9.5 billion in 2022. Projections put its growth to reach $19.7 billion <\/u><\/a>by the year 2030.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following a phenomenal rise in\u00a0blueberry production in Georgia, the government is co-financing cold storage facilities for farmers.\u00a0 The Rural Development Agency (RDA)\u2019s website put up a notice on September 4, 2023 to encourage producers to join the program. The statement tags the program as the \u201cState Co-financing Program of Refrigerated Storage facilities for Berry Crops…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19174,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nGeorgia in a blueberries\u2019 crossover moment as state-financed cold storage program begins - Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Georgia in a blueberries\u2019 crossover moment as state-financed cold storage program begins - Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Following a phenomenal rise in\u00a0blueberry production in Georgia, the government is co-financing cold storage facilities for farmers.\u00a0 The Rural Development Agency (RDA)\u2019s website put up a notice on September 4, 2023 to encourage producers to join the program. The statement tags the program as the \u201cState Co-financing Program of Refrigerated Storage facilities for Berry Crops...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-06T10:23:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-09-06T10:23:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/640px-Blueberries.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"418\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Timothy Wahome\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Timothy Wahome\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/\",\"name\":\"Georgia in a blueberries\u2019 crossover moment as state-financed cold storage program begins - Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-06T10:23:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-06T10:23:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c0aad9a1f85037798080d75b4302cf8\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Georgia in a blueberries\u2019 crossover moment as state-financed cold storage program begins\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News\",\"description\":\"Discover the Latest in Food and Agriculture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c0aad9a1f85037798080d75b4302cf8\",\"name\":\"Timothy Wahome\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/636da6c8288b7dcaef01a42b50c3bc41?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/636da6c8288b7dcaef01a42b50c3bc41?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Timothy Wahome\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/author\/twt4wahomegmail-com\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Georgia in a blueberries\u2019 crossover moment as state-financed cold storage program begins - Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Georgia in a blueberries\u2019 crossover moment as state-financed cold storage program begins - Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News","og_description":"Following a phenomenal rise in\u00a0blueberry production in Georgia, the government is co-financing cold storage facilities for farmers.\u00a0 The Rural Development Agency (RDA)\u2019s website put up a notice on September 4, 2023 to encourage producers to join the program. The statement tags the program as the \u201cState Co-financing Program of Refrigerated Storage facilities for Berry Crops...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/","og_site_name":"Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News","article_published_time":"2023-09-06T10:23:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-09-06T10:23:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":418,"url":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/640px-Blueberries.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Timothy Wahome","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Timothy Wahome","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/","url":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/","name":"Georgia in a blueberries\u2019 crossover moment as state-financed cold storage program begins - Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-09-06T10:23:00+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-06T10:23:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c0aad9a1f85037798080d75b4302cf8"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/2023\/09\/06\/georgia-in-a-blueberries-crossover-moment-as-state-financed-cold-storage-program-begins\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Georgia in a blueberries\u2019 crossover moment as state-financed cold storage program begins"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/","name":"Selina Wamucii | Food & Agriculture News","description":"Discover the Latest in Food and Agriculture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8c0aad9a1f85037798080d75b4302cf8","name":"Timothy Wahome","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/636da6c8288b7dcaef01a42b50c3bc41?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/636da6c8288b7dcaef01a42b50c3bc41?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Timothy Wahome"},"url":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/author\/twt4wahomegmail-com\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19173"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19175,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19173\/revisions\/19175"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.selinawamucii.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}