EastFruit found out that significant numbers of requests are coming from the exporters, but in the end, they cannot gather appropriate high batches for exports. Other than generally low quality of the local supply, prices also play major role. Georgian internal demand on strawberries is so strong that the growers who have appropriate quality strawberries prefer to sell them locally.
High local demand can be observe the import statistics.
Data source: Ministry of Finance of Georgia
Georgia has imported record high 2 000 tonns of strawberries in the first five months of 2022. This is a bit more than two times higher than the second highest imports in the same period of 2021. High demand also translated into high prices for the local suppliers. In its way, high local demand may be partly attributed to the high number of touristsin the country.
Price monitoring tool at EastFruit shows that the average price for strawberries for this week is at the highest point.
Average wholesale price for Georgian strawberries stands at $2.73 per kilogram, $0.6 higher than the second highest price for this week, which was 3 years ago. Usually, the price offered to growers by the exporters is lower than what the local market offers, $2.00/kg.
Georgia has a lot of work to do in order not to miss export opportunities. First of all, it is necessary to ensure the production of high-quality varieties of strawberries. Productivity and yield must be high in order to be price competitive. Extremely important is also to work on post harvest handling, providing a cold chain from the field to the client, since exports will not be suitable under the existing conditions.
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