Tea Plantations to be Restored in Imereti Region

Over 15 Hectares of Tea plantations are to be restored in the Imereti region of Georgia within the three year state initiated program “Georgian Tea”. The budget for rehabilitation is 37,000 GEL, with 80 percent of the costs expected to be covered by the Agricultural Projects Management Agency (APMA) of the Ministry of Agriculture of Georgia.

The Georgian Tea Program was launched by the Georgian ministries of Economic and Sustainable Development and of Agriculture in 2015, with 500 hectares of tea plantations already restored in the last two years through an investment of GEL 1.2 million.

The main objective of the Georgian Tea program is to maximize the use of Georgian tea potential and promote high quality tea production, including organic tea. Both state and privately-owned tea plantations are to be rehabilitated and modern tea processing enterprises are to be established.

“Technical assistance will be provided to program participants in learning tea processing technologies, certification, marketing, and in the creation of sales channels,” the APMA states, adding that the works to be done for tea plantation rehabilitation include the clearing of plantations, drainage channel arrangements, heavy and regeneratory pruning and inter-row tillage.

The Georgian Tea program is expected to introduce the standards necessary for the export of Georgian tea to EU countries.

Nino Gugunishvili