Over 100 tons of honey sold at Baku Fair
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
Natural honey is a healthy delicacy loved by everyone. It has a bactericidal effect, helps to maintain health, normalizes the activity of the gastrointestinal tract, accelerates tissue regeneration, tones the body and stimulates the function of internal organs.
A large number of trade fairs and exhibitions of honey take place in the country, many options are presented in stores and bazars, however finding natural honey is not such an easy task.
The Baku Honey Fair is close to its end. Till now, as many as 120 tons of honey brought by the country's beekeepers from various regions have already been sold. Only 13 tons remained in the warehouses, but it is expected that this amount will easily be sold by the end of the fair.
Almost the entire stock of products exhibited at the honey fair in Baku has already been sold out, Deputy Head of Public Relations and Information Support at the Ministry of Agriculture Vugar Huseynov said on October 23.
Speaking about the prices for honey products, he noted that since the opening of the fair, the price has decreased, and if in the first days a kilogram of honey cost an average of 25 manats, now it is possible to purchase honey for 15-20 manats.
Huseynov also noticed that the ministry does not participate in setting prices for any agricultural products.
Price reduction does not depend on the quality of products, but only on the willingness of farmers to sell goods early, he said.
This year, it was possible to stop attempts to sell low-quality products during the honey fair outside the fairgrounds, as it hapenned before.
"This problem has been solved. The Ministry of Internal Affairs played a big role in preventing citizens from selling poor-quality honey," Huseynov concluded.
The fair has opened on October 8 and will last till October 28. The venue is the Tofig Bahramov Stadium.
The Traditional Baku Honey Fair, first held in 2008, is one of the largest fairs organized in the capital city, with hundreds of beekeepers offering their honey to guests of the event. Last year, 256 beekeepers participated in the fair.
The fair guests are able to taste and purchase many honey flavors, including lime, meadow, acacia, crown of thorns, chestnut, sunflower, licorice flower, sweet clover, etc.
Widespread in the mountainous regions and adored for the nutritional and therapeutic qualities of honey, beekeeping is a rapidly developing sector of the Azerbaijani economy. Domestically produced honey is famous for its high quality and unique taste.
The apiculture has become one of the leading fields of the economy in numerous regions of Azerbaijan, in particular, Astara, Gadabay, Dashkesan and Zagatala. The country is home to one the most famous bee species in the world – the Mountain Grey Caucasian Bee – which can fly at 6 degrees below zero C and has the longest proboscis for sucking up the nectar.
Currently, the state does all its best to further develop beekeeping by creating favorable conditions for beekeepers.
It is noteworthy that the Azerbaijani government freed farmers engaged in apiculture from taxes until 2019, besides the land tax. Moreover, the government gives subsidies, preferential loans to the farmers to facilitate growth in this sector.
Today, a number of Azerbaijani beekeepers export their products abroad.
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