Baku hosts International Exhibition of Agriculture and Food Industry

Today in Baku started two international exhibition of agriculture and the food industry - World Food Azerbaijan and Agrihort Azerbaijan.

Speaking at the opening, the agriculture minister Heydar Asadov said that their work involved more than 240 companies from 36 countries.

According to him, the incentive interest of foreign participants was the introduction of modern technologies in the agribusiness sector, which led to total self-sufficiency of the republic for a number of agricultural products.

International exhibitions allow potential foreign customers become more familiar with the benefits of local organic products, as well as reduced investment climate for large partners, he said.

According to experts, the potential of the local agricultural sector is not developed even a quarter. The reason for this exaggerated intervention of officials, in the absence of conditions for lending to small and medium-sized farms in the dominance of bureaucratic monopoly and, above all, in the absence of institutional reforms and systematic approach to problem solving.

The agro-industrial complex involves approximately 1,208,000 villagers, most of whom have difficulty processing allotments. Problems with irrigation in remote sites, ensuring chemicals and fertilizers in crop, pasture and reproductive purebred cattle breeding, a number of other obstacles do not allow developing this segment of the economy. Numerous decrees and orders of the President on the background of disinterest of the mass producer remain letters on paper. - 17D-