Trends in imports of goods in January

In January of this year the volume of wheat imports to Azerbaijan rose to more than $ 25 million. In February, the imported volumes stabilized, and the volume of imports reached a two-month figure for the same period in 2013 - $ 51 million, according to the State Customs Committee.

According to the SCC, in January 2014 due to the growth in the supply of wheat and sugar, food imports increased overall by 46% to $ 75 million and in the two months of this year, the share of food products in the portfolio of imports was already 13.6% ($ 162.6 million).

In 2013, Azerbaijan imported wheat and wheat flour at a total declared value of $ 413.2 million.

According to the report of the State Statistics Committee (SSC), in January of this year, imports of potatoes increased 2.5 times, and the imports of vegetable oils increased 2.4 times. While the rise in oil imports is not associated with the trends in the consumer market (oil is imported in large scale for processing and comes in separate batches), the situation is different with potatoes. Since late last year, the market is a shortage of this product that caused a wave of price increases. Today, the average price of potatoes is 1 manat per 1 kg, which is two times more than in the comparable period of 2013.

Experts point out that the real volume of imports of potatoes does not correspond to the data, which publishes the SCC. So if we trust these data, the volume of exports and imports of potatoes are almost equal: in 2013 there were imported 62.5 thousand tons, and there were exported 53.9 thousand tons of potatoes. Potatoes are a monopoly of influential persons in Azerbaijan, and the lion's share of the imports is hidden from the tax, according to local experts.

According to the State Statistics Committee, in January imports of household refrigerators increased by 4.2 times, washing machines - 51.7%, and computers - by 2.9 times. This marked increase in imports due to the wholesale supply of goods for sale in the coming months.

Deliveries of cement and cement clinker increased 7.7%.

In the Shamakhi district a plant operates for manufacture of household electrical appliances. The company meets the needs of only a certain part of them. The population mainly prefers foreign machines. For example, last year more than 160 000 refrigerators were imported, while 6,662 refrigerators were produced in Shamakhi.

In January, furniture imports increased 22.3%. Officially local production meets about 50% of the demand for furniture. In 2013, the volume of domestic production of furniture made AZN 97.3 million, down 47%. During the same period, the import of furniture and its spare parts totaled $ 86 million.

In January, the total volume of imports of goods in Azerbaijan declined by 14.7% to $ 535.1 million. -08B -