Farmers Taught to Plant Hazelnuts on New Technologies

The scientific and research institutes of the Ministry of Agriculture held a scientific-practical seminar «Hazelnut Growing - application of new technologies" in the Zagatala district.

Lankaran is one of the areas where the production of hazelnuts is one of the main sources of income of households. There are also several large specialized farms. The Research Institute of Fruit and Tea Growing has had several strong points, including the production of hazelnuts, since the Soviet times.

President Ilham Aliyev instructed the Ministry of Agriculture to expand the gardens under hazelnut seedlings and to plant new hazelnut orchards, since its exports may bring currency revenues. The Ministry told Turan that in the coming years the area under the hazelnut orchards will grow twofold and reach 40,000 ha. At the beginning of 2015 the area of hazelnut orchards was 32,700 ha.

Hazelnut orchards are located on the flat terrain in the Gakh, Zagatala and Balakan regions of Azerbaijan.

Total in 2015 Azerbaijan produced 32.5 thousand tons of hazelnuts.

The planted areas and the number of new orchards increase by an average of 4-5% annually.

At present, Azerbaijan is among the five leading manufacturers and exporters of hazelnuts (together with Turkey, Georgia, Italy and the United States). In Zagatala there is Association of Hazelnut Exporters, which has offices in Germany and the Czech Republic.

According to International Nut & Dried Fruit, Azerbaijan owns 4% of the world market production of hazelnuts. ----- 08D