Georgia sold a total of 1,630 tons of herbs worth USD 1.6 millionin1Q2022. Georgian herbs are sold in large quantities in Russia and Ukraine, - according to the preliminary data from the National Statistics Office of Georgia (Geostat).
Company Geguti, one of the largest exporters of herbs, exported a total of 200 tons of products in 2016, including Ukraine, Moldova, Poland and the Baltic states.
As Mamuka Tsikoridze, co-founder of the company declares, the Russian-Ukrainian war created problems for the sale of Georgian herbs.
According to him, it is not possible to import herbs to Ukraine at the moment, and in addition to these, it is difficult to sell the product in other countries due to the war.
"The period of taking herbs is over at the end of April. Geguti harvested about 400 tons. As for sales, due to the war it became difficult to export herbs, in particular, the price began to decline. Access to other countries was also delayed. Georgian herbs have been struggling to compete with Iran, and now the key markets have been restricted, competition has grown.
As for market diversification, we are considering increasing the export share of the Polish market. Russia and Ukraine are the most lucrative markets in terms of selling herbs, as they consume more than in Europe, for example, Europe may only order one container of 16 tonnes. At the same time, there is a fixed price in Europe, while we have a wide price range in those two countries. Georgia is also a small market in terms of consumption and the quantity that is sold in the market every day is enough,” said Mamuka Tsikoridze.
LLC Geguti 2005 holds a farm on 3 ha and employs 50 persons.
