Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan produced 2.177 million metric tons of grain in January-August 2014.

On average, the Azerbaijani farmers collected around 22.8 quintals of grain from each hectare, Trend Agency reported with reference to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee.

Given the collected corn, grain production amounted to 2.238 million metric tons.

The agricultural production volume in Azerbaijan in current prices amounted to 3.622 billion manats in the reported period or by 3.7 percent less compared to the same period of last year.

During this period, the livestock production increased by 2.8 percent, while crop production decreased by 9.2 percent.

The official exchange rate on September 18 stood at 0.7844 AZN/USD.

Azerbaijan with a population of over 9.5 million people is able to meet its grain demands by 75 percent and imports only 25 percent of grains from abroad, mainly from Kazakhstan and Russia. The country produced 2.8 million tons of grain in 2013.

The government is keen to reduce the country's dependence on import to fully ensure its food security.

Since July 2, State Material Reserves Agency under Azerbaijan's Emergency Situations Ministry started purchasing grain at the price of 240 manats per ton from local farmers through its enterprises-grain elevators 'Sangachal', 'Ganja', 'Abşeron Taxıl', 'Karat-Holdinq', 'Karmen', 'FATOĞLU', 'Bakı-Taxıl' named after N. Guliyev, 'Araz' and 'Aveta'.

The purchased grain should meet the requirements approved by the resolution No 105 of Azerbaijan's Cabinet of Ministers issued on July 7, 2009 and determined by the annex No 1 on "Terms of content and use of the State Grain Fund."

The grain with wormwood or bad taste and smell, contaminated with black fungus horns-parasite, as well as storage pests are not allowed.

The fund which is eligible to provide grain supply of the nation, will not accept products not meeting these quality requirements.