They again Raise the Price of Bread

The stores of Baku have again raised the price of bread - yesterday in the village Bakikhanov the product went up by 10 kopecks (33%). Suppliers say about the weight gain for bread loaves, but the population knows that loss of weight and quality will follow. A similar pattern was observed in the past year, after which the VAT on imported wheat from abroad at the time was canceled, and the price dropped to the "usual" level of 30 kopecks per 630 grams of the most popular sort of bread.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan, this year the country harvested 2.7 million tons of grain on 965,000 hectares, including 1.83 million tons of wheat. The average yield was at 26 tons per hectare. Recently, the Minister of Agriculture stated that the demand of Azerbaijan for grain is about 3 million tons, so based on the arithmetic calculation it remains a bit to get rid of dependence on imports.

But reality does not match the numbers and the quality of local products for a long time will cause the State Grain Fund to buy wheat overseas - particularly in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. Even according to official data, the share of local grain in the granaries of Azerbaijan is less than 10%, but experts believe this figure is too high. According to the official report on the website of MOE, the price per ton of wheat in reception centers of the fund is stable and is 230 manat ($ 293) per ton as of 1 September.

However, the price for feed grain in the market is based on an agreement and is about 25 kopecks per kilo. So before the local villagers they have officially lit the red light, for it is unprofitable donate grain at fixed prices. According to the requirements of the state standard, even Class III wheat has to be dried, sorted and cleaned by the collectors themselves, but local farmers have not got such technical possibilities, so their product does not meet the conditions and is discounted.

This year's drought in southern Russia killed 5 million hectares of crops, accounting for 7.3% of the total sown area. The crops were lost in 21 regions of Russia. So Azerbaijan can only rely on a small part of Russian exports, which by international forecasts is 12.1 million tons. Almost the same situation is observed in Kazakhstan - last year they raised 29.7 million tons of grain, but this year they raised 12.5 million tons, of which 7 million tons will go abroad.

By the way, the bakeries and mills of Azerbaijan do not habitually favor Russian grain due to its quality indicators. On one of the mills in Baku they told Turan that the level of gluten in the Russian wheat is 23-25%, while the local index is not as high as 20%. The purification factor of local products is also low, forcing millers to engage another production function and leading to loss of time, as well as additionally "throwing up" the price of the final product. - 17B-