Realities of Atena

Statistics on the volume of production in one of the dairy companies in the country raise questions about the extent of the shadow economy in the real sector in Azerbaijan. For example, the official volume of production in the company Atena (942.1 tons per year) corresponds to its three-day power.

The official newspaper Xalq Qazeti on January 22 published an article "The reality of Agdjabedi» (http://xalqqazeti.com/az/news/social/53073), which presents data on volumes for each product made by LLC Atena located in the Agjabedi region (about 350 km south-west of the city of Baku). In 2014 the company produced: milk - 234.6 tons, cheese and cottage cheese - 140.2 tons, yogurt - 265.8 tons, ayran (a local drink of sour milk) - 256.4 tons and butter - 45.1 tons. These low figures were specific not only to the previous year. For example, according to the State Statistics Committee, in 2011-2013 in the Agjabedi region there were produced respectively 36.8, 107 and 80.1 tons of cheese and cottage cheese.

LLC Atena did not respond to a written request from Turan IA about whether these data are objective.

On the corporate website of the company it is noted that Atena daily produces 400 tons of raw milk by automated equipment. In 2011, with the commissioning of the company, it was noted that its capacity is 50% of the total capacity of the dairy industry.

For the construction of the plant JSC Atropatena invested about 40 million manat, part of which was borrowed from the state and the private JSC Pasha Bank. The company planned to pay off the investment within 4 years. However, with such volumes of official production, they will not pay off even in 10 years.

Note that JSC Atropatena has the largest livestock in Azerbaijan with 3,000 head of cattle and a fodder plant (LLC Agate Agro), and also an enterprise jointly with the company Gilan. ---08B