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Success Story
Leasing workshop sows
seeds of prosperity for
Georgian agriculture
Leasing Boosts Georgian Agribusiness
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Photo: Roger Bird, ACDI/VOCA
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Kvicha Grdzelidze inspects dried
mushrooms at his business in
Sachkere, Georgia.
Mamuka’s lease allows him to
make higher payments during
mushroom season, when
cash is plentiful, and lower
payments the rest of the year.
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Spring and fall are wild mushroom seasons in the mountains
near Sachkere, Georgia, and every day villagers of all ages fan
out into the cool forests to collect succulent porcinis and chanterelles.
The bulk of the harvest goes to Kvicha Grdzelidze and
his partner Mamuka Nozadze, who run a mushroom-drying
business.
It can take two hot, dry days to sun-dry 1,100 pounds of fresh
mushrooms, which is only a fraction of the 10 tons that could be
harvested each day in Sachkere if the capacity was there. With
a mechanical drying machine, Kvicha and Mamuka could process
20 times more mushrooms than they now without having to
worry about rain interrupting the process and destroying the
product. The higher-quality mushrooms could then be sold to
European markets — and fetch twice the price they would in
Georgia.
But at $23,000, the cost of a drying machine is well out of their
reach. “We could never afford to buy such a machine, although
it would make our work so much easier,” said Mamuka. And
even if banks would lend money to such a small business, he
said, “interest rates are very high in Georgia for beginning entrepreneurs.”
To help small businessmen like Kvicha and Mamuka access
modern, expensive equipment, USAID is supporting a program
to introduce machine leasing to the country. “This is an absolutely
new financing tool for Georgia,” said George Gvalia, deputy
director of the Georgian Leasing Company. While
agriculture accounts for the largest share of Georgia’s economy,
few farmers have the resources to modernize.
But leases do not require significant collateral, since the leasing
company owns the equipment. Also, monthly payments are
lower, and if better equipment is invented, the customer can
return the old equipment at the end of the lease and obtain a
newer machine. Mamuka’s lease allows him to make higher
payments during mushroom season, when cash is plentiful, and
lower payments the rest of the year.
Mamuka said they expect to be able to hire as many as 500
villagers to collect mushrooms once the new machine is up and
running. And with their increased profits, Kvicha and Mamuka
hope to expand their processing into other dried products.
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