Growers note higher prices for persimmons this year compared to last season. This is due to several reasons. Unfavorable weather conditions including drought in summer, cold and rainy autumn and hail in Kakheti in August significantly reduced the harvest in the region. Another factor is the rise in labor costs. On average, the daily salary of fruit pickers is now 20-30% higher than in the 2020 season.

Solomon Gogelishvili would have harvested 30-40 tons of persimmons from a 2-hectare orchard, but, unfortunately, his village Akura in Telavi municipality was in the epicenter of hail in August that destroyed 100% of his harvest. Moreover, Gogelashvili told EastFruit that hail damaged not only fruits, but also the trees. Now he hopes that some of the trees will recover from the damage, but he will have to cut many of them.

Vasil Germanishvili, a spokesman for the Kakheti regional service of the Georgian Ministry of Environment and Agriculture, told EastFruit that the average persimmon harvest in Kakheti will be 20-30% lower due to damage caused by hail.

Hail was not the only problem for persimmons this season. Summer drought reduced fruit size. Marina Akolashvili owns a cold store in Gurjaani municipality and buys seasonal fruits from farmers for exporters. According to her, the fruits are small this year, which is less attractive for exporters. She hopes that in the fall, before peak harvest, the fruits will have time to gain weight.

Read also: Unusually high exports of potatoes from Georgia

“It all depends on the clients. If we get an order for persimmons, we will start buying. It is too early to talk about prices or the season, as we have received no orders yet,” Akolashvili said.

Although it is still early for the peak season, some farmers have already made deals or sold the first batches of persimmons. Roman Chkhenkeli owns 12 hectares of persimmons in the municipality of Lagodekhi, Kakheti. He has already sold the first batches at 1.1 GEL/kg ($0.35), but he believes that the price will further rise. The main reason is the increased cost of labor. Since persimmons are harvested manually, labor is one of the main costs for growers.

Another farmer who has already agreed on a price with exporters, Anzor Mskhiladze, owns 7 hectares of persimmon orchards in the Gori region. He will be paid 0.9 GEL/kg ($0.27), which is 0.2 GEL ($0.06) more than last season. Mskhiladze, speaking with EastFruit, also confirmed the increase in labor costs.

Now, due to rainy weather in the east and west of Georgia, the harvesting is being delayed. The mass harvest will begin in mid-October and last until mid-November. Farmers note colder autumn, which delays harvest but will not affect the quality of the fruit.

Georgian persimmon is traditionally exported to Russia, Ukraine and Armenia. Georgia exported 340 tons of persimmons in September, 62% of which were exported to Armenia. EastFruit will continue to inform our readers about the persimmon season in Georgia in the coming months.

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At the end of last week, rain and hail hit the north of Moldova. The agricultural lands of the Soldanesti region have suffered the most from the hail. Hailstones, which reached the size of a pigeon’s egg, seriously damaged tens of hectares of fruit orchards in some villages of the region.

However, experts from insurance companies argue that there are few cases of requests from farmers to conduct surveys of hail-damaged orchards and record the damage. Insurance contracts for farmland in 2021 increased by 20-40% on average, compared to the previous year, according to insurance companies. Moreover, insurance contracts for perennial plantations against spring frosts and hail constituted the main part of the new insurances.

Employees of insurance companies assume that hail has mostly damaged the small farms which do not use insurances. In addition, it was mainly the leaf apparatus that suffered from the hail, and not the fruit which in most cases is not yet formed due to the cold weather. Moreover, experts in this regard note that such mechanical damage to fruit trees, as shown by the consequences of the April 2017 snowstorm, can have a paradoxical effect: somewhat reduce the amount of harvest, but significantly increase the quality (size) of the remaining fruits.

Also, insurers claim that the damage to farms by late spring frosts is significantly lower than in 2020. These spring frosts have damaged only some apricot and peach orchards, and to an even lesser extent, cherry orchards. At the same time, the frosts practically did not affect apple and plum plantations.

Сообщение First hail damages to farms in Moldova in 2021 появились сначала на EastFruit.

In the first part of our story about the village of Costesti in Moldova, we discussed the factors of their success. It is important to remember that this village of only 12,000 people generated about $30-40 million in proceeds from the sale of grapes, plums, cherries and other fruits plus they actively participate in cooperation. The Association of Table Grape Producers and Exporters was also established Costesti, which provides great technical and marketing support to table grape growers.

In this second part, we will explain the technological trends and new technologies for growing table grapes and illustrate this in videos.

In order to reduce the risks to grapes from bad weather and damage from hail, they recently tried to cover the grapes in Costesti with a special film. This technology also improves the overall quality of the product, which means getting a higher price and reducing losses during storage. And although it costs more than $20,000 per hectare to cover the grapes, it pays off very quickly.

According to Moldovan table grape growers, without covering the vineyards in Moldova, it is unrealistic to obtain quality products. Any rain before harvest can destroy the quality of the product and make it unsuitable for long-term storage. Such grapes can only be sold for processing into grape alcohol very cheaply, which means that you will receive a guaranteed loss. Sheltering the vineyards also helps to extend the harvesting season, which is very important in the face of a shortage of labor. High labor costs and simply the physical absence of people to work in harvesting fruits and berries are one of the most acute problems in the village and indeed throughout Moldova.

Farmers in Costesti are also switching to pergola table grapes in large numbers to increase plantation productivity. A joint FAO/EBRD project has been promoting the transition to this technology for several years now, which is already yielding its first positive results. Also, many growers have installed weather stations with soil moisture sensors in order to use water more efficiently, reduce the risks of losses from bad weather and improve product quality.

In the video below, you will see what a Moldovan plantation of table grapes under film to protect them from rain and hail looks like. You can also see how a conventional plantation is being converted to pergola technology and how grapes are transported after harvest to minimize labor costs. The video includes an interview with the farmer himself about the reasons for the transition to more modern cultivation technologies.

Also in Moldova, projects are underway for growing table grapes in greenhouses, which allows for almost twice the yield and sells 4-5 times higher yet without having to invest in expensive storage facilities. These technologies are also actively promoted by the FAO/EBRD project. At the 2019 conference “Fruit and Vegetable Sector of Moldova – the Best Investment Niches”, a session was allocated to the cultivation of grapes in greenhouses.

In the second video below, you can watch a master class on cutting table grapes in a greenhouse by Gulom Otajanov, agronomist of the Khoja Negmat Farm from Tajikistan for the farmer Yuri Bivol from Moldova. Ali Sotivoldiev helps him. Farmers claim that with such pruning, 80 tons of grapes per hectare can be obtained.

Early grapes are in high demand since Moldova is situated near many Black Sea resorts where tourists in large numbers visit every July and August. Growing early grape varieties in greenhouses makes meeting this demand possible because high quality products are guaranteed. Greenhouses practically eliminate risks from frost, hail, rain and other weather factors and costs of protecting against pests and diseases are reduced.

High quality table grapes from greenhouses are very transportable, which increases its value in the eyes of buyers like supermarket chains and wholesalers. In addition, there are less problems delivering in the summer to the resort cities further away in Ukraine or Romania and even as far as Russian markets where grapes are also very relevant in July-August.

In July-August, retail prices for grapes, even on the domestic market of Moldova, reach 4-5 euros per kg. The first farmers who introduced greenhouse technologies for growing grapes have already realized they can generate 6-10 times more revenue per hectare than traditional approaches. Therefore, one should expect the rapid development of this segment of the grape business in the coming years, especially since there are funds for investment in the village of Costesti where the traditional grape business is also profitable.

In the last video below, you can see what the grapes look like in a greenhouse as well as watch an interview with a farmer about the specifics of growing greenhouse grapes. He also explains why he switched from tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers to growing table grapes indoors. The farmer grows Rochefort grapes (a relative of the Cardinal variety).

Read also:
Grape capital of Eastern Europe – Costesti, Moldova: village of multimillionaires (part 1)
Grape capital – Costesti, Moldova: storage and cooling plus veneer box production (part 3)

Сообщение Grape capital – Costesti, Moldova: protective coverings, pergolas and greenhouses (part 2) появились сначала на EastFruit.