Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

The Azerbaijani government does not expect price increase or bread deficit due to the devolution of the manat.

Spokesman for Agriculture Ministry Murtuzali Hajiyev assured that there is no reason to worry, saying that Azerbaijan has no problem with the grain supply, since the country has enough grain reserves.

“This year 2.9 million tons of grain were produced in Azerbaijan, and some 1.7 million tons of these product are wheat. The country can meet its grain demand by 70-80 percent,” he added.

The Central Bank of Azerbaijan introduced the floating exchange rate on December 21, that immediately devalued the manat to the US dollar by 47.63%, exceeding the scale of February’s devaluation level. Consumers already observed the increase in prices in many sectors, including food.

Referring to possible increase in price for food, Hajiyev said the prices change almost every day, but there is no significant price increase for the products of local production.

“The Ministry has an information portal on prices. Visiting the Ministry’s web-site, everyone can see the prices for agricultural products, both retail and wholesale,” he noted.

Earlier Hajiyev noted that grain production in Azerbaijan increased by 30% compared to last year. Irrigated grain is planted in the lowland regions of Azerbaijan while the highlands and foothills of the country are sown with grain without irrigation.

2013's demand for grain totaled 5,884 million tons. It was ensured through domestic production with over 2.8 million tons and about 1,612 million tons were covered by import.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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