In the village of Satemo, Gori Municipality, the Kandorelashvili family invested GEL 26,000 in the growing of an apple orchard, of which GEL 5,000 was obtained under the program Plant The Future.
As farmer Marika Kandorelashvili explains, a new apple orchard has been planted in 2018 and a big harvest is expected this summer, but it is unclear to her where and at what price they will be able to sell the apples.
"We have an apple orchard on the land area of 4.5 ha and so far we are only growing local varieties of apples. But, we also planted different varieties. We produced 10 tons of apples every year, but in 2-3 years we will receive 20 tons. We grew a new garden under the project Plant The Future. We received a state subsidy of GEL 5,000, but it is difficult to sell the harvest. We expect a big harvest from the new garden this year, but we do not know where it will be sold, ”said Marika Kandorelashvili.
As the farmer explains, they also had big problems with rising prices for fuel and pesticides.
"We have done a great job. The state has also assisted us with cheap loans and we are grateful, but ask us what we are doing, whether to increase production or not, what difficulties we face and what barriers we will face. The problem is that everything has become more expensive, for example fuel costs 4 GEL, nitrogen 75 GEL, we pay 3 times more for fertilizers. While everything is getting more expensive the price of apples is not rising”, - the farmer declares.
