387 cold storage facilities operated in Georgia in 2024. Most of them were located in Shida Kartli region (59.7 percent), while the rest were spread across Tbilisi (11.1 percent), Kakheti (9.8 percent), Kvemo Kartli (5.2 percent), Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region (5.2 percent), Imereti region (3.4 percent), Adjara AR (3.1 percent), Guria (1.0 percent), Mtskheta-Mtianeti (0.8 percent), Samtskhe-Javakheti region (0.5 percent), and Racha-Lechkhumi and Kvemo Svaneti (0.3 percent), - according to the preliminary data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).
In 2024 service was provided to 509 customers. The number of producers and resellers, from whom the product was purchased for resale, totaled to 1 289, while the annual average number of employed persons in cold storage facilities equaled 1 964. In 2024, in cold storage facilities were stored 340.8 thousand tons of products. 41.3 percent of those products was chicken meat (including frozen meat), 19.8 percent were meat and meat products (including semi-finished products), 12.8 percent – fruits and vegetables, 12.7 percent – fish, 7.8 percent – milk products, while the remaining 5.6 percent were other types of products.
In 2024 cold storage facilities purchased 72.2 thousand tonnes of products for resale and the income from provided services amounted to 27.1 million GEL. In 2024 cold storage facilities sold 544.0 million GEL worth of products (96.3 thousand tones) and relatively big share (48.3 percent) of those products in terms of value were local (purchased) products. Herewith, 46.3 percent of local (own) products sold by cold storage facilities was chicken meat. Significant share of imported products was meat and meat products (including semi-processed goods) (33.2 percent), chicken meat (including frozen) (31.8 percent), and fish (10.3 percent). Sales on the foreign markets accounted for 3.3 percent of total value of products sold. Significant share of foreign sales were chicken meat (59.2 percent), and fruits and vegetables (29.9 percent).
According to the results of the survey, the average daily load of storage in cold storage facilities was 57.2 percent in January, 51.4 percent in February, 51.0 percent in March, 49.8 percent in April, 57.6 percent in May, 47.8 percent in June, 55.0 percent in July, 58.5 percent in August, 49.7 percent in September, 58.7 percent in October, 57.7 percent in November, and 53.0 percent in December. 63.6 percent of cold storage facilities are fully equipped with modern equipment, 32.8 percent are equipped partly and 3.6 percent are not equipped with modern equipment at all. 70.0 percent of cold storage facilities use loans. Those facilities use loans to purchasing fixed capital (including both purchase new equipment or improve the old ones) (51.3 percent), to finance the working capital (45.4 percent), or to finance both, the fixed and working capital simultaneously (3.3 percent).
