ENPARD Promotes Collaboration between Georgian Businesses and Local Farmers

The European Neighborhood Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development (ENPARD) which assists farmers in promoting their products and establishing a strong network with businesses has made a deal with Georgian online platform Kar.ge to increase awareness of products produced by Georgian farmers.

Under the agreement with Kar.ge, the online platform will feature agriculture products from Georgian cooperatives every Tuesday and Friday.

The partnership will also focus on improving Georgian farmers’ relationships with businesses, supermarket chains, hotels and restaurants to raise awareness and increase the sales of Georgian products, contributing to the sustainable development of the Georgian economy.

The online platform Kar.ge was established in 2014 and receives 210,000 unique monthly visitors. Its customer base has shown interest in Georgian products and it has already fostered strong relations with supermarket chains across the country.

“Its appeal, however, is not limited only to Georgia, as the platform has also developed extensive relations with foreign investors who are interested in Georgian agricultural products,” managing director of Kar.ge Tariel Zivzivadze said.

“We have a request from Holland to export Georgian dry fruit and we are in negotiations with local farmers to help facilitate the trade,” he added.

The ENPARD claim the cooperation was inspired by the recent promotion of two products through the online platform and which achieved very positive results. The first was the fresh mountain trout produced by the farmers’ cooperative `Samegobro 2014` in the Chokhatauri region, while the second was the Georgian cheese produced by `Lelo 2014` in the Khoni region (Western Georgia).

Another recent success of ENPARD involved facilitating meetings between Georgian mobile operator, Geocell, and farmers from the Imereti region. High quality dry fruits covered in chocolate going by the name of “Chirkoladi” are produced there and Geocell supported farmers to brand the product more effectively. Geocell also purchased `Chirkoladi` as gifts for their valued customers.

ENPARD is a five-year program which started in March 2013 and will end in March 2018, with the aim of reinvigorating the agricultural sector in Georgia with a thorough cooperation of government, civil society, and farmers. Georgia is at present benefitting from €52 million to support its agriculture.

Tamar Svanidze