Press Review 23.05.2017

The participation of Ilham Aliyev in the Arab-Islamic-US summit, the rise in price of fruits and vegetables, and the causes of inaction of exchange offices are the leading topics of today's press.

The Azerbaijan writes about the participation of Ilham Aliyev at the Arab-Islamic-American summit held last week. The author writes that the strategy of Ilham Aliyev's activity becomes the main program of the international platform.

The Echo publishes an article on the growth of prices of agricultural products by 15%. This is due to higher prices for fertilizers, transportation costs, etc. The whole fault is a weak agrarian policy. Azerbaijan imports fruits and vegetables from Iran, Turkey, and Africa. Part of this production is genetically modified, which especially regards Iranian agricultural products, where GMOs are actively used. Unfortunately, in our country there is no independent laboratory that would check food products for GMOs.

The Novoye Vremya analyzes the data of Azexport, noting that in general the activity of the portal Azexport raises doubts, as almost no indicator is checked on the basis of the State Statistics Committee"s reports. In general, the analysis of exports shows there have been no significant changes in our non-oil exports. Hazelnuts remain the main non-oil commodity supplied to Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. The rest indices are also the same. There is even no evidence that Azerbaijan supplies cherry or pomegranate juices to Europe (they are reported by Azexport).

The Yeni Musavat writes that despite the decision to resume the work of exchange offices, they have never opened. According to the expert Natig Jafarli, the main cause is the demand for a pledge of 50,000 manats for the opening of an office. -0 ---