Exporting wine, mineral water and nuts is so yesterday. Georgia did it before and does it now, but it's time for new ideas. With more and more Georgian croakers now ending up on French plates, it is instead frog meat that may become Georgia's next hot export.
The Agriculture Ministry was excited to report on August 9 that frog exports are on the rise. If in 2009 Georgia exported 96 kilos of frog legs, in the first six months of 2010 alone 60 kilos of frog meat, worth a whopping $497, were dispatched to Europe; mainly to France, of course.
Apart from the frozen meat, Georgia sells live frogs as well. Unappreciated by local gourmets, as many as 250,500 frogs, worth some $14,600, left their native swamps in Georgia in 2009 to meet eager bon vivants in France.
Giorgi Lomsadze is a journalist based in Tbilisi, and author of Tamada Tales.
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