Screen Houses Established to Preserve Endemic Georgian Varieties of Grapes

Two screen houses with the highest standards have been established in Georgia by the European Union and the Food and Agriculture Organisation under the EU4Business programme.

These screen houses, with a total area of 800m², will preserve the National Repository of fruit trees and endemic grape vines in Georgia and improve the gene bank conditions in the Jighaura Research Station, part of the Georgian Scientific Research Centre for Agriculture (SRCA).

This repository will also permit a full isolation of the live collection from the possible spread of virus through insects and will safely store European varieties of table grapes and orchards.

The SRCA will be able to distribute the live materials from these screen houses to the private sector so that these nurseries will multiply these materials and be able to produce quality certified seedlings to be later sold to the farmers and entrepreneurs in the productive sector.

“New screenhouses … will also contribute to the quality of the saplings available for all farmers in Georgia. This is a key factor for agricultural productivity and a step forward on the path leading to the  establishment of the certification system in line with the EU standards,” said Javier Sanz Alvarez, FAO-EU projects coordinator.

The EU and FAO are jointly working to support the establishment of a certification system that will improve the quality and phytosanitary conditions of the seeds and saplings produced in Georgia. It will also allow Georgian nurseries to come closer to European standards. To raise the quality of seeds and seedlings, the association of seed and sapling producers, GEOSSA, was created in 2020 and is actively working on consolidating the sector through a multi-stakeholder platform including the industry, farmers, government, and other key sector stakeholders.