Expert: Azerbaijani Export of Vegetables to Russia at Level of Imports from Other Countries

Azerbaijan is among the top three exporters of agricultural industry products to Russia among the CIS countries. According to the analytical portal RBC, on the background of anti-Turkish sanctions official Baku fourfold increased its deliveries to the Russian Federation. The first two places are occupied by Belarus and Uzbekistan.

The head of the agricultural department of the Center for Economic Research (CER) Vahid Maharramov told Turan the lead is in exporting apples, and lately vegetables - tomatoes and cucumbers, but only in small amounts, if taken in absolute terms, grown in greenhouse farms.

Referring to the State Statistics Committee, the expert noted that Azerbaijan is not able to fully meet the domestic demand for agricultural products, as evidenced by the fact that the growth of imported products of agricultural industry was recorded in the first quarter. If you look closely, it turns out that the growth of exports of the same vegetables to Russia is approximately equal to their imports from other countries.

Azerbaijan annually supplies agricultural goods to Russia in the amount of $ 200-300 million and this year a more respectable figure is expected, which nevertheless does not match the capabilities of the local agricultural industry, the expert believes.

According to him, the country cannot provide a physical rate of per capita consumption at the expense of domestic production. The World Health Organization recommends the annual consumption of 140 kg of vegetables and 110 kg of fruit. In Azerbaijan, these figures are 100 and 90-100, respectively.

Soft loans from the National Fund for Entrepreneurship Support (NFES) under the Ministry of Economy do not help yet - mostly large farmers have been allocated 77.8 million manat for the construction of 25 greenhouses on the outskirts of Baku with a total area of 109.8 hectares. This allows growing additionally 36 thousand tons of vegetables every year.  --17D-