From Potatoes to Butter: The Impact of Iran’s Ban on Azerbaijan

In 2018, the Government of Azerbaijan adopted the “State Program for the Development of Rice Cultivation in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2018–2025.” As stated in the document, the objective of the State Program was to more fully satisfy the country’s population demand for rice, substitute imports, develop the rice processing industry, increase employment among the rural population, and stimulate the development of the rice cultivation sector.

The implementation period of the “State Program on the Development of Sericulture and Silk Production in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2018–2025” has come to an end. It should be recalled that the State Program was adopted in 2017.

When Ilham Aliyev told a gathering of non-oil exporters in 2017 that Azerbaijan’s wineries were operating at only 20–30 per cent of their 100m-bottle annual capacity, the message was clear: viticulture would be revived, factories would run at full tilt and exports would “increase sharply”.

In order to ensure food security in the Republic of Azerbaijan, including the organization of food wheat production, the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan signed, in July 2022, the Decree “On a number of measures to increase the level of self-sufficiency in food wheat.” The Decree states that the potential formed in recent years in the sphere of agricultural development in the country—especially the establishment of grain farms based on the application of modern technologies, as well as the liberation from occupation of lands that had remained under occupation for many years—creates an opportunity to further increase the country’s level of self-sufficiency in food wheat.