The first Georgian online bazaar opened in December and now everyone will be able to buy agricultural products without intermediaries.

Ebazaar.ge is the first Georgian online platform allowing users to easily purchase healthy, environmentally friendly, high-quality agricultural products directly from the grower.

“Online shopping in Georgia is gaining momentum, and the pandemic has given a significant impetus to the development of this direction. For the last five years I have been developing e-commerce in Georgia and therefore I can compare the situation before and after. Before the pandemic, online shopping developed poorly, but during the first lockdowns, people even ordered mineral water online” Tamar Buadze, co-founder of ebazaar.ge, commented in an exclusive interview with EastFruit.

According to her, the Georgian consumer is more inclined to make small purchases online – the average bill is still $10, while standardized goods such as electronics are most often purchased. “Despite the modest average bill, you need to understand that there are 1.1 million registered households in Tbilisi that buy food every day, and fruits and vegetables are an integral part of Georgian cuisine,” Ms Buadze explains.

“Our platform will help both consumers and growers get closer to each other. This is a classic marketplace where farmers can register freely, place products on electronic stalls and sell them directly to end consumers.”

The goal of the project is to make Georgian agricultural products more accessible through modern technologies, as well as to support local farmers.

“In addition to fruits and vegetables, we offer authentic products from different regions of the country, which often cannot reach the supermarket due to limited production. Now consumers will be able to receive such products with home delivery,” says Tamar Buadze. The high quality of products is controlled by the so-called “consuls”, who work on the farms and help farmers register at the platform, as well as control the quality and organize logistics. A client can leave a review on the taste of the product on the website for each farmer.

ebazaar.ge is a unique business model that does not sell its own products, but offers producers a convenient sales service. A farmer can place an offer himself, set a price, manage stocks and be fully involved in the trading process without an intermediary.

The task of the project is to provide farmers and consumers with a convenient payment service and automatic traceability of the product from the moment of ordering until the product reaches the end consumer.

The company also offers flexible payment terms, when the money is debited from the client’s account upon receipt of the order, and not at the time of ordering, and goes to the farmer’s bank account. Taking into account regional peculiarities and as a matter of convenience, payment is possible both in cash and by bank transfer.

So far, at the platform, you can buy fresh vegetables and fruits from the regions of Kakheti and Kvemo Kartli only in Tbilisi, but next year the company is going to expand deliveries from other regions to large cities – Kutaisi, Batumi.

Сообщение The first online bazaar opened in Georgia появились сначала на EastFruit.

Nine years ago, farmer Guram Dzirkvadze from the Georgian village of Dioknisi, which is located at an altitude of 1180 metres above sea level, was engaged in the cultivation of 15 grape varieties when he decided to grow berry crops as well. Thanks to the help from an EU-supported project called Khulo Local Action Group (LAG), Mr. Dzirkvadze received a grant, advisory services, and technical assistance. Today, he is successfully developing his berry farm.

“At first, my wife and I faced many obstacles, but we were able to overcome them step-by-step. In the initial stage, we received not only theoretical knowledge but also practical experience from the European Union. We attended various training at young farms set up in Eastern Georgia and collected information. As a result of the knowledge and experience we gained over the years, we can safely say that we are considered experts in the region, which, of course, is a great responsibility,” Guram Dzirkvadze notes.

Today, his raspberry farm is one of 73 projects funded by Khulo LAG. “Khulo has grown a lot, civic awareness has increased, and citizens are more actively involved in the development of the municipality. Today, the group has 65 people and everyone is trying to benefit their municipality,” says one of the members of Khulo LAG Aslan Tunadze.

From the very beginning, the Dzirkvadze family realized that it was necessary to share the experience they gained with other people since the climatic and soil conditions of alpine Adjara make it possible to obtain a high-quality harvest at a minimal cost. Therefore, they began to distribute seedlings, which contributed to the development of the activities of their fellow villagers. Today, thanks to Khulo LAG and the Dzirkvadze family, 48 local families are engaged in this business, writes BPN.

“There is little land in Khulo and therefore, it is better to produce grain than to grow potatoes. In addition, based on local climatic conditions, we do not have to process the harvest; our product is environmentally friendly. All this encourages us to gain a foothold in the market and we succeed. By October, we have become 100% suppliers to the Adjarian market. With the support of the European Union, we were able to carry out branding and the sale of products for many hundreds of kilometres using a refrigerated truck. The truck is necessary to reduce production losses and preserve the presentation so that in the end we are in compliance with hygiene and food safety standards and can deliver products to the buyer,” says Mr. Dzirkvadze.

As part of the EU-funded project with the participation of Khulo LAG, an irrigation system has been installed to optimize necessary resources. Producers take pride in offering the best quality berry to their customers. According to Guram Dzirkvadze, without the support of the European Union, his business could not have received stable development.

Сообщение Georgian farmer successfully develops berry business thanks to support from EU-funded project появились сначала на EastFruit.

In organic production, field crops are easier to grow, and also to store and transport. Therefore, 95% of organic farmers grow grain and industrial crops. As for greenhouse vegetable growing in the organic production segment, there are only 7 farms in Ukraine that decided to make a business on it. This was reported by the Internet portal SEEDS.org.ua according to Infoindustria.

Such data was reported by Larisa Shedey, a senior researcher at the Institute of Soil Science and Agrochemistry named after A.N. Sokolovsky, during the conference “Agroecology 2018” organized by the UHBDP project.

“All organic greenhouse farmers are faced with a lack of good vegetables for their children. The demand for organic vegetables is very high, but few are produced. Only 7 farms decided to grow organic vegetables in greenhouses,” said Larisa Shedey.

Larisa Shedey collaborates with the Organic Family Farm of Andrey Marchenko, who has been working in the Sumy region for about 16 years. According to her, Organic Family Farm produces cucumber and tomato of very high taste qualities. It enables a company to sell vegetables on the local market in a provincial town with a margin of 50-100% of the market price, and buyers pay more expensive not for an organic certificate, but for taste.

Another producer named FOP Burnaeva L.L. sells organic tomato at a price of 60 UAH / kg in Kharkiv, while in Kyiv a farmer sells tomato at a higher price – 120 UAH / kg.

According to the expert, entering the organic vegetable growing segment is cheaper for indoor use: “Organic certification is worth 20-30 thousand UAH per year, plus 10 thousand UAH is spent on product analysis. Thus, spendings in about 50 thousand UAH per year for a farm are not significant. Investments in the open ground may amount to 500 thousand UAH.”

The availability of roads is a very important factor for organic vegetable producers. “There are regional processing centers for pumpkins and apples, but not for vegetables. The proximity to such centers is a very important aspect for farmers, ” notes Larisa Shedey.

The human factor is also important. “Older agronomists often just don’t believe in organic farming. It is impossible to convince them, they subconsciously can sabotage the work process and provoke problems. Often owners recruit vegetarians, people who are fond of yoga, and lead a healthy lifestyle, and then the team works more successfully. Of course, a decent payment is needed. There is practice on the farms when the salaries of employees are at the level of 1 thousand Euros, only then people don’t go abroad,” said Larisa Shedey.

Сообщение Despite high demand, Ukrainian organic vegetables are grown only in 7 greenhouses появились сначала на EastFruit.