'This forum is the first steps where women economic empowerment starts from. The Ajara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) is ready to support women entrepreneurs and startups. Through the Women’s Room of ACCI we will help them in preparing Business Plans, liaising new business contacts and follow up their way of achieving success in businesses’ - Tamaz Shavadze, Chairman of ACCI.
The National Women Business Forum for 300 participants including 180 women entrepreneurs from all regions of Georgia as well as public, private and civil sector organizations concerned with women’s entrepreneurship was held in Batumi on International Women’s Day, March 8, 2018.
Participants were enthused and galvanized by the stories of successful women entrepreneurs from all walks of life who made up the first part of the forum. Stalls of banks, input supply companies, private sector business support companies and civil societies were set up in the lobby.
'I have never met so many women entrepreneurs and I would like to use this opportunity for exchanging information and experience' – Nino Giorgadze, Entrepreneur from Shida Kartli Region.
The event built on the success of the Ajara Business Women’s Forum held of the previous year, brainchild of the Ajara Chamber of Commerce and it’s Ajara Business Women’s Association and the Ajara network of Women’s Rooms. This year’s event saw the Georgian Chamber of Commerce and numerous NGOs join the events support network. This year’s event showcased successful women entrepreneurs from all over Georgia, discussed challenges, introduced opportunities and market matched funds to needs improve communication between entrepreneurs and those with funds to invest in them. EBRD, Bank of Georgia, TBC Bank and Credo Bank were all represented at the forum as were numerous private sector with a stake in seeing successful development of women’s business.
‘I am from Racha, Oni municipality. I run a small guesthouse in my village and arrived here with a hope to find out resources for developing my business’ – Ekaterine Tsikhiseli, from Racha Region.
The ALCP facilitated the Georgian Beekeepers Union (GBU) in development of the honey promotion video, depicting the story of Georgia as a land of the oldest honey discovered and unique biodiversity to support awareness raising and promote export potential of Georgian honey and Jara. The video was shared with different stakeholders and social networks.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared it with their internal networks of embassies in Georgia and foreign countries and it was uploaded in a Georgian production section. The video is on Facebook of the Embassy of Switzerland in Georgia. The Georgian National Tourism Agency; The Department of Tourism and Resorts of Ajara; the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture; and The Agency of Protected Areas are sharing it with their network.
It has reached the highest views on the popular Facebook platforms Marketer.ge and Georgian Wine. To date the video has 185,000 views and 6,000 shares. The majority of the viewers are emphasizing on interesting story mentioned in the video they did not know before and are sharing it for further promotion.
The products with 'Georgian Milk Mark' are now available in the supermarkets of Georgia.
The 'Georgian Milk Mark' is officially registered and serves to distinguish dairy products made from natural milk.
The documentary Jara is now available for sale on amazon.
Jara is a fairy tale journey through one year in the mountains of Ajara. A story of the shifting boundary between human habitat and wild nature, portrays everyday lives in the changing seasons. The wooden jara in the forest and the bees living within it are the fixed point in the story.
The film was named as the best feature film at the Wolves Independent International Film Festival2018 in Lithuania, and won the Golden Green Award 2018 at the Deauville Green Awards International Film Festival in France for the best production in the category of Sustainable Agriculture; the cameramen of the movie received an award from International Festival of TV and Movie Cameramen the Golden Eye 2018 for Best TV Camera Work.
The main backer of Jara is the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) through the Mercy Corps Georgia implemented Alliances Lesser Caucasus Programme.
Jara honey, collected from the local beekeepers in Ajara, has been officially branded and packaged for the first time. It is now ready to enter the international markets.
On 8th of November, 2018, the Government of Georgia adopted regulation #525, which forbids registration of the vet drugs containing prohibited antibiotics, like, chloramphenicol, metronidazole, dimetridazole, ronidazole, nitrofuran (including furazolidone) which are widely used in beekeeping. The regulation entered into force on 1st of January, 2019 and was nationally covered by the media outlets. The regulation was proposed by the Veterinary Department of the NFA, after this constraint was raised at the first Honey Sector Advisory Committee on 22nd of June, 2018, which brought together honey stakeholders to discuss tackling the high levels of antibiotic residues in honey which are limiting the development of the honey sector.
An article about Veterinary Surveillance Points (VSP) has been published in a quarterly bulletin of OIE – the World Organization for Animal Health. The article covers topics on the tradition of livestock seasonal movement in Georgia, the necessity of establishing VSPs and the importance of the points in animal health control throughout the country. The author of the publication is the Head of the Veterinary Department of the National Food Agency and the OIE Delegate of Georgia - Lasha Avaliani.
Please follow the link: Oiebulletin/veterinary-surveillance-points
