BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 17
By Tamilla Mammadova – Trend:
The Georgian company Karelis Healy, a producer of dried fruits under the Chikori brand, plans to begin production of dried fruits from bio-watermelon, Trend reports citing EastFruit analytical portal.
As the representative of Karelis Healy Ana Soselia said, Japanese partners of the company addressed the company a proposal to ensure the supply of organic dried fruits from watermelon.
According to her, this spring the company intends, with the help of specialists, to equip a watermelon plantation on five hectares of its land in accordance with organic standards and in parallel to begin the process of obtaining bio-certificate.
If the company manages to find local organic farms that already produce bio-watermelons, or agree to grow them by order, it will be possible to start production of the corresponding dried fruits as early as possible.
"These will be dried fruits from bio-watermelon, since we produce products without any additives at our enterprise, these are just washed and dried fruits," she said.
According to Soselia, in case of successful implementation of the project, the company plans to launch production of dried fruits from other organic fruits, and in the future - to take an organic certificate for production.
“Perhaps we will not switch to the production of exclusively bio-dried fruits, but we will establish a separate line of bio-products. There is great demand for such products in export markets,” Soselia noted.
Karelis Healy LLC owns over 30 hectares of orchards (mainly apples and plums) and a modern fruit processing company located in the Karelian region, Eastern Georgia.
In January 2020, Karelis Healy received an international FSSC 22000 certificate in the field of food safety. Currently, using both its own raw materials and fruits purchased from local farmers, it produces a total of about 15 products.
These are dried fruits from melon, watermelon, apple, plum, apricot, persimmon, figs and others, as well as dried fruits in chocolate. Chikori dried fruits are represented in almost all large networks of Georgian supermarkets, in particular, Goodwill, Nikora, Spar, Agrohab, as well as in the hotel sector. About 40 percent of the company's products are exported abroad, including EU countries.
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