Azerbaijan depends significantly on imports of agricultural products

On Tuesday, the British humanitarian organization "Oxfam" presented a project entitled "National Strategy in Azerbaijan and the issue of food security through small-scale farmers." The report submitted  to the public, reflected the results of analysis and research in various fields of agriculture, and provides recommendations. Under the  current situation, in the light of the devaluation of the manat an increase in food prices  is unavoidable. In Azerbaijan, 80% of money  is spent on products. Reducing the rate of manat makes inevitable impact on the social situation of citizens, said a representative of the EU mission in Baku Olaf Heldelbah. Food security depends on 4 factors: food availability, access to food for all, the use of products, consistency in providing products. 80-85% of the products must be carried out within the country, 20-25% of the products must be in stock. At the same time, daily calorie foods should be more than 253 calories per person. Only in this case we can assume that food security of the state was provided.

"Azerbaijan is able to provide themselves with barley, fruits, legumes, potatoes, vegetables, livestock products - beef and lamb, dairy products, mineral water. Self-providing on these products is  more than 80%," said researcher Elkhan Mikyailov. At the same time, there is a high dependence on imports of a number of raw materials.  "Thus, the production of sugar and confectionery products by 95%  is dependent on imported raw materials.  Milk production is dependent on imported  of raw materials by 24%.  In 2013, the dependence on grain imports amounted to 44%, corn - 40%, other grains - 97%, butter - 50%, fish - 28%, rice - 85%, tea - 100% vegetable oil - 80% salt - 22%.  Overall, in 2013, the food self-sufficiency in Azerbaijan amounted to 81.2%, and the dependence on imports - 22%,"  said Mikyailov.

The expert believes that the rise in the prices of imported products is inevitable. At the same time, Azerbaijan re-exports sugar to Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite the production of a number of local products  their import also increases. They are beef, potatoes, fruits, juices, berries, oils and other. This has a negative impact on local producers, he said. Studies have shown that food risks in Azerbaijan depend on countries such as Russia (grain), Kazakhstan (corn), Brazil (sugar), Sri Lanka (tea). Azerbaijan exports  agricultural products mainly to  the CIS countries. Export to EU countries is only 0.1%. At the same time, in neighboring Turkey there are no exports of Azerbaijan.

"In the coming years, Russia and Kazakhstan will move to the WTO standards, which would mean the restriction of output of Azerbaijani products to these markets," - said Mikyailov.  Negotiations on accession of Azerbaijan to the WTO have been going for a long time and being very slow. Joining the organization would strengthen the reforms in Azerbaijan, and this requires political will.  "If there is political will, within the next six months, Azerbaijan will receive developing country status as part of the WTO. This will lead to improvements in food production and lower prices. 80% of the technical work in this direction has already been done, including the scope of the legislation, but the parliament and the government tightened decision making. Expert Vahil Maharramov touched upon the issue of misuse of agricultural subsidies. Thus, in recent years, the allocation of subsidies has not resulted in the growth of agricultural production, and for some products even decreased.

For example, in 2013 the production of grain and potatoes has declined, he said. The expert also pointed out the inaccuracy of the official static data that does not take into account the data of the shadow  economy. "So, in 2013, Azerbaijan imported from Georgia 120 thousand head of cattle and more than 160 thousand head of sheep. However,  in the  official statistics, these imports are not considered as imports of meat, " Maharramov said. At the same time, official statistics do not take into account the huge import of wine from Georgia.

Experts also touched upon the issue of extravagance products at weddings and memorial service. After updating this issue, decreased consumption of foods and meat prices decreased by 1 manat, and even more for some other products. The recommendations of the study highlighted the need for serious reforms in various fields in order to address the issue of food security. -03C-