Azernews.Az

By Aynur Jafarova

Azerbaijan has eliminated dependence on grain imports, Deputy Agriculture Minister said on November 1.

"Today, one of the most important problems is providing the population with organic products through domestic production," Ilham Guliyev said.

"It is necessary to use advanced technologies and high reproductive seeds and seedlings. According to the calculations, around 128,628 tons of wheat and oat seeds were produced in the country in 2007. But this figure increased to 194,500 tons (with a demand of 191,300 tons) in 2013. This dynamics eliminated the country's dependence on imported seeds," he added.

Azerbaijan produced 2 million tons of grain in 2003, and this figure reached 2.8 million tons in 2012 as a result of eliminating dependency on imported seeds.

Wheat production increased from 1.5 million tons to 1.85 million tons. Potato production increased from 769,000 to 968,500 tons, vegetables from 1 million to 1.216 million tons, melons from 356,700 to 428,000 tons, fruits from 572,100 to 810,000 tons, and grapes from 65,000 to 151,000 tons.

"There were 246 kilograms of cereals (after cleaning) per capita in 2003, while we had 292 kilograms in 2012," Guliyev said. "During the mentioned period, potato production per capita increased from 94 to 104 kilograms, vegetables from 128 to 130 kilograms, melons from 44 to 46 kilograms, sugar beet (for industrial processing) from 16 to 19 kilograms, fruit and berries from 70 to 87 kilograms, meat from 23 to 30.5 kilograms, milk from 143 to 183 kilograms, and eggs from 83 to 131.1 pieces."

According to the draft state budget for 2014, Azerbaijan plans to reach complete self-sufficiency in flour next year.

The country is expected to produce 1.386 million tons of flour in 2014 and to decrease its import to 10,000 tons.

According to the government's forecasts, flour consumption in the country will reach 1.371 million tons in 2014, while wheat production will reach two million tons in the same year.

Azerbaijan intends to gradually decrease the country's dependence on imported wheat.

Azerbaijan plans to import about 1.08 million tons of wheat in 2013 and 0.9 million tons of wheat in 2014, whereas last year some 1.366 million tons of wheat were imported.

According to government's outlooks, the level of self-sufficiency in wheat will grow from 56.8 percent in 2012 to 69 percent in 2014.

Guliyev also said that Azerbaijan's agricultural export increased from $115.3 million to $595.3 million in the past ten years.

According to Deputy Minister, Azerbaijan has changed from an importing county of agricultural products to an exporter in the past ten years.

"If in 2003 the export of crop production was $91.6 million, in 2012 it increased by three times, reaching $279.1 million. Accordingly, the export of animal products increased from $3.4 million to $26.9 million, and the export of processing industry products grew from $20.3 million to $289.3 million," Deputy Minister said.

According to the draft state budget for 2014, Azerbaijan will allocate 131 million manats to financing the state program on reliable food supply to the population in 2008-2015, which exceeds the figure for 2013 by 4.8 percent (6 million mantas).