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April-May, 2018 NEWSLETTER

Tulips Reign Supreme at the Zrda-supported Greenhouses in Bredza Village of Shida Kartli

In 2016, USAID Zrda provided farmer Aleksi Mekantsishvili with equipment and materials like greenhouse covering and drip irrigation to establish a 500-sq. m. greenhouse in Bredza village, located approximately two kilometers away from the Administrative Boundary Line with the occupied territory of South Ossetia. In addition, USAID Zrda provided farmers like Aleksi with knowledge and skills in new technologies of greenhouse flower production. This support enabled Aleksi to earn approximately $2,500 in tulip sales in the spring of 2017. Aleksi used this extra income to build another 250-sq. m. greenhouse, plant 45,000 tulip bulbs and earn $7,000 this April.

Zrda Facilitates New Tourism Product Development and Marketing

USAID Zrda plans on supporting the first international fair attendance for its tourism stakeholders during the fall of 2018 and then twice annually - spring and fall of 2019 and 2020. To meet the objective, Zrda in cooperation with the Georgian National Tourism Administration organized New Tourism Product Development and Marketing Seminar aimed at increasing sales of new regional products to international buyers resulting in an increased number of international visitors to targeted regions via marketing of products and destinations at international trade fairs/exhibitions in key outbound target markets. The product development activity is critical for Zrda’s provision of comprehensive trade fair preparation including trainings on product development and marketing for tour operators, regional activity operators, and Destination Management Organization representatives, trade fair planning and preparation, communication skills for approaching potential buyers, planning B2B meetings, and contract negotiation and sales.

Zrda Tourism Sector Beneficiaries Recognized Internationally

USAID Zrda beneficiary, 'Greenhouse' guesthouse from Zugdidi received Guest Review Awards 2017 and 9.2 scoring by Booking.com. Equipped with knowledge and skills of the Zrda-supported digital marketing training, hotel owner Tika Didishvili improved her online profile to market her property, reach international customers and substantially grow her business. Her hard work paid off soon with one of the most important annual Booking.com awards for service quality and customer satisfaction review score of 9.2. Like Tika, 309 other guesthouse owners also benefited from both digital marketing trainings and American Hotel and Lodging Association Education Institute (AHLAEI) certificate training courses on hotel administration, and to-date are reported up to $2,000.000 of sales revenues off which about $850,000 are new sales.

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April-May, 2018 NEWSLETTER

Zrda-supported MSMEs as the Drivers of Employment Growth

“Production and profitability increase if the quality is better. I thought I had quite extensive experience in greenhouse production until Zrda came in with agricultural trainings and technical assistance to optimize my harvests and income per square meter,” – says farmer Omar Jikia from Samegrelo. Thanks to Zrda support, Omar generated 2,500 GEL ($1,000) in sales in just 10 days following the start of the greenhouse cucumber harvest season. As such, Zrda offers quick impact and high margin crops, coupled with new technology and customized training and technical assistance throughout the production cycle. To-date, Zrda, through local and international experts from MASHAV, Farmer-to-Farmer and PUM Netherlands, provided agriculture trainings and technical assistance to 912 farmers across Georgia.

“We hired additional staff and plan to hire more employees with introduction of rafting package and other new services this summer. It all started with Zrda’s efforts to boost our online marketing efforts, and as a result, our room occupancy increased by nearly 50 percent,” – having considerable experience in hospitality business Sergo and Marina Maisuradze are running “Tirebi“ guesthouse located near Tsundi lake in Aspindza municipality. “Tirebi”, like 334 other Zrda-supported MSMEs operating in tourism, agriculture and services, recognized the need of additional workforce for the growth of their businesses, and became engines of job creation in Zrda target regions. Since April 2016, Zrda’s contributed to the creation of 841 new jobs – 477 (57%) in tourism, 257 (30%) in agriculture and 108 (13%) in service industry – by injecting competition and economic dynamism in its target sectors and regions.

This April, Ketevan Gorelashvili from Sakobiano village of the Pankisi Valley has been counting chickens as they hatch. Last year, through Pankisi Small Grants Program she received a 1,000-chicken egg capacity incubator machine and a generator to help her start her chicken hatchery business. Ketevan expects to have about 5,000 chicks hatched this year, and generate about GEL 7,000 (USD 3,000) in sales revenues. The chicken hatchery is just one of the 10 Zrda-supported local micro businesses targeting agriculture, tourism and service industry development of the region. Through its agriculture interventions, Zrda also established five 100-sq. m. greenhouse demo plots for seedling and vegetable production in Pankisi Valley communities. In tourism sector, Zrda helped 11 guesthouses boost their incomes through improving their marketing skills and helping them join international web-based booking sites (Booking.com). To promote business development of the region, Zrda launched a new round of Small Grants Program ($85,000) designed for nine target communities of the Akhmeta municipality, including Pankisi Valley communities. Within the Program, Zrda plans to award up to 60 grants with maximum of $1,600 per grantee for agriculture and tourism development activities with at least 35% of total project value requested as a leverage from an entrepreneur.

Hatching Healthy and Happy Chicks to Meet Local Market Demands

Technical Assistance and Trainings to Boost Yields, Improve Quality, and Generate

Increased Income

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USAID Zrda-supported Activities in Tourism

Ÿ Zrda-supported 4 Farm Service Centers in Ninotsminda, Tsalka, Marneuli and Zugdidi municipalities successfully sold 57 crop-based consultation packages to farmers. Additionally, 4 other FSCs will start promotion and sale of consultation services, thus promoting and establishing a culture of organized fee-based extension services available to farmers in the regions.

Ÿ 14 Information and Consultation Centers (ICCs) received modern field laboratory toolkits. 3 additional ICCs in Borjomi, Akhalkalaki, Adigeni will receive similar field lab toolkits.

Ÿ Zrda-supported 43 greenhouse farmers from Shida Kartli, Kvemo Kartli and Samegrelo regions produced and sold vegetable seedlings, flowers, herbs and vegetables to generate over $214,000 in sales revenues.

Ÿ Through various programs, around 70 greenhouses will be established in Zrda target regions, that will generate more than $400,000 in sales revenues.

Ÿ In 2016-2017, Zrda-established 57 greenhouses generated more than $100,000 leverage, sales of around $180,000 and created around 250 jobs.

Ÿ Through Zrda-supported contract farming initiative, 4 farmers in Kvemo Kartli arranged total of 3.9 ha bell pepper demonstration plots. Around 240 tons of yield is expected to be sold in Georgian and foreign markets via distribution company.

Ÿ Zrda supports 12 farmers from Kvemo Kartli and Samtskhe-Javakheti high elevation communities to arrange cool weather open field vegetable demo plots and receive up to $60,000 in sales revenues.

Ÿ 835 vegetable, berry and beekeeping farmers trained in new agriculture technologies and international best practices.

Ÿ 31 farmers received over $165,000 interest-free loans through Zda/CHCA free loan program, boosting their income up to $88,000.

Ÿ Zrda and APMA cooperate via AMMAR and GEF-DANIDA programs recognizing each other’s financial assistance (40%) provided to the farmers (60%) as a contribution from farmers’ side.

Ÿ Agronavti, a matchmaking mobile platform jointly created by Zrda & GFA lists up to 2,500 registered users up-to-date. Through Agronavti, Georgian Farmers Distribution Company collected and sold over $650,000 worth of products from 50 local farmers. This included about $115,000 worth of vegetables, berries, dairy products, and honey from the Zrda beneficiary farmers.

Ÿ 309 accommodation providers and 31 restaurants/cafes in Samegrelo, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Pankisi Valley and Shida Kartli registered at Booking.com and TripAdvisor through Zrda-supported digital marketing trainings.

Ÿ More than 16 leading Georgian tour operators explored Samegrelo and Samtskhe-Javakheti to promote around 20 new touristic products. Similar info tours are planned in Akhmeta and Kvemo Kartli in 2018.

Ÿ During Anaklia Festival 2017, designed to boost jobs and income for communities living near Administrative Boundary Line with the occupied territory of Abkhazia, up to 50 businesses offered their products and services to over 200,000 festival participants.

Ÿ 90 MSME guesthouses representatives were trained and 60 certified in hotel administration through the American Hotel and Lodging Association Education Institute (AHLAEI) Certificate Training Course.

Ÿ Zrda supports agro, eco, adventure, and cultural tourism development in Zrda target regions.

Ÿ Samstkhe-Javakheti First Regional Tourism Development Symposium held to promote region as a premier touristic destination. Second Regional Tourism Development Symposium in Samegrelo is planned for September 2018.

Ÿ 18 tourism public and private stakeholders took a study tour in Romania to share successful destination management approaches in Europe and brought international best practices to Georgian tourism industry.

Ÿ 19 Tourist Information Center (TICs) employees from Samtskhe-Javakheti, Samegrelo and Shida Kartli regions trained to improve customer services for incoming tourists/visitors. Zrda works with 4 regional TICs to equip and furnish them according to international standards.

Ÿ Zrda supported Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region to attend ITB Berlin in March 2017. In 2018, Zrda will prepare Samtskhe-Javakheti and Samegrelo tourism industry to promote regions at world's international tourism trade shows.

Ÿ In 2018 Zrda starts to train tour guides in hiking, camping, horse-riding, rafting and canyoning with the goal of promoting adventure tourism in Georgia.

Ÿ Zrda continues supporting Chachkari Ethno Village development through planning, marketing and promotion.

Ÿ Meskhetian cuisine recipes book “Meskhetian Tabla” developed as the first product of Samtskhe-Javakheti Destination Management Organization working group.

* The contents are the responsibility of Chemonics International and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the Unites States Government.

USAID Zrda-supported Activities in Agriculture

April-May, 2018 NEWSLETTER