WASHINGTON: Azerbaijan increased export of agricultural products by 31.9 percent compared to the nine months of 2015, the country’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture Seyfaddin Talibov said. He made the remarks Oct. 19 in Baku at the conference “Non-oil exports: today’s challenges and opportunities.” He said that about 90 percent of agricultural products of Azerbaijan is exported to Russia. “We hold 11th place among exporters of agricultural products to Russia,” Talibov said. “2.7 percent of Russian imports of fruit and 3.5 percent of imports of vegetables account for the Azerbaijani products.” “Despite the fact that the price of our agricultural products sold in Russia is above the average index for the market, they are of high quality,” Talibov said.
The deputy minister noted that over the past 15 years, the export of primary agricultural products of Azerbaijan in value terms increased by 5 times, by 56.2 percent over the last ten years and by 28.7 percent over the last five years. “If in 2000, fruits and vegetables accounted for only 31 percent and export of cotton accounted for only 66 percent in the export of agricultural products, currently the supply of fruit and vegetables abroad accounts for 80-90 percent,” Talibov said.
