In the third quarter, the external market was set to 7.1 thousand tons of nuts, which is 36.5 per cent higher than in the third quarter of 2015.

According to the Ministry, revenues from exports of nuts for the first 9 months increased by only 2.1% to $116.3 million (7.7% of total exports of the country). As a result, the hazelnut took the fourth position in the list of main export products of Georgia during the reporting period, yielding copper ores and concentrates, passenger cars (re-export) and ferroalloys.

The main markets for Georgian hazelnuts are the countries of Europe and CIS, including Russia, the volume of deliveries which in January-September this year amounted to 935,2 tons (down 9.3%).

As reported, in 2015, Georgia exported 19.4 thousand tons of nuts - 2.5% less than the year before. The proceeds decreased by 3.8% to $176.4 million Deliveries in Russia grew by 3 times - up to 1.4 thousand tons, and revenues increased 2.7 times, to $10.7 million

Georgia ranks 4th in the world in the production of hazelnuts, after Turkey, Italy and the United States. According to the Ministry of agriculture of Georgia, in 2015, was produced in the Republic of 42.3 thousand tons of nuts to 43 thousand tons a year earlier.