Juice Production Decreased

In the first quarter of this year, Azerbaijan produced 7.2 thousand tons of fruit and vegetable juice, which is 4.3% less than in the comparable period of 2014, the State Statistics Committee told Turan.

A part of the production (11 776 thousand liters) was exported at an average price of $ 1 per liter.

Last year, the volume of juice production decreased by 12.8% and dropped to the level of 2012. Officially produced was 29,500 tons of juice. It is noteworthy that in Gabala, where Gilan Ltd. has the region's largest plant for the production of fruit juices, the volume of production output is reduced every year: in 2011 the company bottled 19.2 million liters of juices, in 2012 this figure fell to 7 million 659 thousand, and in 2013 – to 6 million 450 thousand liters.

According to estimates of the State Statistics Committee, more than 28 thousand tons of fruit and vegetable juices are consumed annually in Azerbaijan. According to the food balance for 2013, about 18% of the demand is met by imports. However, a comparative analysis shows that the consumption of juices is more. For example, in 2007 41.1 thousand tons of juice was imported. In addition, local production put on the market is 26.4 thousand tons. Thus, taking into account the population growth, the volume of juice consumption is not less than 70,000 tons per year, or about 7.3 liters per capita.

According to the State Customs Committee, in 2014, 5,166 tons of juice was purchased abroad, which was declared for a price of $ 6 million 275 thousand. 8.4 thousand tons of juice was sold abroad. From the sales the exporters gained $ 9 million 55 thousand. Mainly valued abroad is pomegranate juice of several manufacturers from Azerbaijan (JSC AzNar, Ltd. Miri Grand, and Ltd. Az-Granata). -0--