Georgians have been cultivating hazelnuts through millennia – this crop is a very important component of local cuisine, but in West Georgia, where it is grown traditionally, hazelnut was considered to be more a product for local consumption. In recent years, however hazelnut emerged as cash crop and important export commodity for the country and Georgia became one of the top five hazelnut producers in the world. Today, approximately 107,000 households are involved in hazelnut production; these are mainly smallholders, with approximately 1.5ha hazelnut orchards those cash incomes heavily depend of hazelnuts.

The hazelnut growers face many challenges in Georgia, like lack of proper extension to improve their yields, pest outbreaks, lack of quality certification schemes and organized sales, which would benefit them to access premium markets etc. In these circumstances, Pakka Georgia emerged as a key driver to change the realities of Georgian hazelnut market for smallholder producers. With the vision that the sustainable hazelnut production and transparent and profitable value chains could create income and decent employment opportunities for Georgian farmer families, Pakka Georgia supported the creation of farmers internal control group for organic and Rainforest Alliance certification and access to tailor made extension services. The Associations Pakka Georgia partners with, work with hundreds of hazelnut farmers. They aim at:

• Supporting the improvement of the product quality and certification of member hazelnut grower farmers according to the EU organic and UTZ/Rainforest Alliance Standards;
• Facilitating member hazelnut grower farmers access to necessary information and trainings, as well as to the technical support required for improving their production systems;
• Facilitating the marketing of member hazelnut grower farmers organic and/or UTZ/Rainforest Alliance certified products with premium price, through cooperation with market partners oriented on collaboration for mutual benefits.
• Facilitating improved access to production means and necessary services through supporting development of hazelnut sector related services for farmers.

Pakka Georgia is responsible that first certified hazelnuts are exported from Georgia and smallholder families benefit from improved yields and better market opportunities. In the next 2-3 years Pakka Georgia aims to increase the stability of its associations and creates new jobs based on environmental and social standards.

Our Partners