Tzezari’s Dairy Dreams

Georgian Milk Mark Dairy Tsezari was the first exporter of Georgian dairy products to the USA and Canada in 2016. Tzerari has also been operating a successful dairy porducts shop in Batumi since 2019. The company has now opened a restaurant ‘Borani' serving traditional Ajarian dairy dishes including the famous Ajaruli Khajapuri in Batumi. The name comes from Borano, a traditional Ajaran dish made from butter and sour cream.

Eco migrants from Ajara, Tsezari the youngest in the family, started cheese making with the help of his mother, in an old cow shed in a village outside Tsalka town, selling the cheese in agricultural markets in Tbilisi and Batumi. The company has two factories in the high mountains in Tsalka and Khulo. They produce Sulguni, Imeruli and Factory cheese as well as butter, matsoni, nagudi, and sour cream, and employ twenty local rural women and men. The company collects thirteen tonnes of milk daily from eight hundred farmers living in Tsalka and Khulo municipalities and sells products in up to 1000 outlets of Ori Nabiji, Daily, Will Mart, Billioni and Carrefour supermarket chains across Georgia.

The ALCP first worked with Tzerari in Tsalka in 2012 and later in Ajara from 2014 helping establish their community based factories and shop. Tzezari Ltd is now a leading member of the ALCP2 facilitated Georgian Milk Mark.

The ALCP2 implemented by Mercy Corps Georgia, is funded by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC) in cooperation with the Austrian Development Cooperation (ADC) and Sweden.