Azerbaijan"s foreign trade falls short with Russia almost 5 times

The foreign trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia before the end of the year is to reach a record level of $ 3.1 billion - said at a press conference in the news agency Interfax Azerbaijan the Trade Representative of Russia in Azerbaijan Yuri Shchedrin .

According to him, during January-October this year, the volume of imports and exports was 13.1% higher than last year's figures, reaching $ 2 billion 315.4 million. Over the past five years, the Azerbaijani-Russian economic and trade ties have doubled.

Today Russia, along with Turkey, is the leader of the countries that export to Azerbaijan. Approximately 90% of Russian exports are products with high added value, which causes the difference in prices. According to the Federal Customs Service of Russia, goods exported to Azerbaijan for three quarters of the year totaled $ 1 billion 678.3 million, and re-exported goods were worth $ 369.3 million (a difference of almost 5 times).

Russian exports dominated in cars and machinery, vehicles, ferrous and nonferrous metals, metal, wood, pulp and paper products, chemicals, electricity, and food. Food marked lag in comparison with the previous year at $ 386.9 million (-3.4%), due primarily to the introduction of the famous Russian government embargo on the export of wheat. As a result, 90% of Azerbaijan's grain was imported from Kazakhstan, and only 9% was Russian grain. The Trade Representative promised to correct the situation.

For three quarters of 2012 Russia exported to Azerbaijan metals and products from them at $ 267.6 million (+4.7%), machinery, equipment and vehicles at $ 569.5 million (+9.1%). The share of imported Russian agricultural products and foodstuffs rose to $ 188.4 million (+18.3%).

Due to the low delivery of the planned volume of Azerbaijani gas to Russia, the share of mineral products in the export portfolio reduced to 17.1% (-11.8%). Despite the agreement for the supply of 3 billion cubic meters of gas in January-September, only 944.9 million cubic meters was supplied.

Today the economy of Azerbaijan involves more than 500 companies with Russian capital, of which 60% are joint ventures, and the rest are fully subordinated to Russia in finance.