Is Minister of Economy Right in Reporting Increasing Interest in Cotton Growing?

Cotton production, according to Economy Minister Shahin Mustafayev, refers to priority areas. As he said at today's conference Azerbaijan-Turkish Experience in the Development of Promising Areas of Agriculture, the government will support producers through concessional loans and participation in forming procurement prices.

"Companies that buy raw cotton should take into account the international prices and the devaluation in Azerbaijan in the formation of purchase prices. We are negotiating with them to cause them to offer the villagers more reasonable prices. And in general, access of cotton producers to finance should be improved," he said.

Recall cotton growing is strongly monopolized in Azerbaijan - LLC CTS Agro runs main cotton fields on the lowland plus six processing plants in the city of Shirvan and in the Saatli, Agjabedi, Beylagan, Barda and Bilasuvar regions. In seven regions it has the largest procurement points. In addition, it is the main partner of the leading enterprises for the production of finished products - JSC Sheki Ipek and JSC Inter Textile.

After the head of the said company Javid Mukhtarov and its two financially responsible leaders were imprisoned on the International Bank case last August, the collectors did not get their money. So the collection and production of cotton this year will not grow, despite the statement by the new leadership of CTS Agro on the intention to sow cotton on at least 12,000 ha. And this is connected primarily with the purchase prices, which do not cover the costs of the villagers. Thus, in accordance with the company, the purchase price per ton of cotton, depending on its type is set at 420 manats ($ 265) for Grade 1, 400 manats - for Grade 2, 380 manats - for Grade 3, and 360 manats - for Grade 4. And this is despite the fact that the stock exchange price of the product with growing demand is $ 1,367.

Another reason for the low efficiency of the output is the minimum cotton machinery used during harvest. For example, last year, farmers were allocated credits in advance on the basis of the calculation of 250 manats per hectare, but the problems faced by the International Bank of Azerbaijan, whose client is LLC CTS Agro, prevented the transfer of these funds. --17D-