Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Rapidly developing fruit and vegetable sector in Azerbaijan
The Azerbaijani fruit and vegetable sector has been rapidly developing in the past years. The country has managed to become the leading persimmon grower in Europe and enter the group of the largest pomegranate growers in Eastern Europe. However, there still are problems negatively affecting development of the Azerbaijani fruit and vegetable sector, Ms. Tetiana Getman, Head of Fruit-Inform, said at the Caspian & Black Sea Agrarian Congress in Baku.
Azerbaijan has a variety of advantages to successfully develop its fruit and vegetable sector, inclusive of geographical location and favorable climate.
«Climatic conditions enable Azerbaijani growers to harvest their crops several times a year and significantly extend their fruit and vegetable season. In addition, Azerbaijan has an advantage of relatively low production costs again thanks to climatic conditions and rather low labor costs», Ms. Getman added.
Fruit-Inform analysts estimate fruits and vegetables to account for the share of about 20% in Azerbaijani total agricultural production and 34% in total agricultural exports (mainly thanks to fruits and nuts).
Ms. Getman also mentioned active investments in fruit and vegetable logistics and transportation in Azerbaijan. However, production infrastructure and technologies are still rather low.
«Technological level of production in Azerbaijan is still significantly lower than in Eastern European countries. As a result, yields of Azerbaijani fruits and vegetables are 30-50% lower than in countries, which are potential importers of fruit and vegetable products from Azerbaijan», she said.
Ms. Getman added that rather limited geography of Azerbaijani fruit and vegetable exports is another problem in the sector.
«Russia is the main export market for fruits and vegetables of Azerbaijani origin and consumes about 90% of total exports from Azerbaijan. However, the season of exports is limited to just 1-2 months. Moreover, Russia has been an unreliable trade partner in the past few years», she said.
Ms. Getman mentioned diversification of sales channels and searching alternative export markets as an optimal solution in that case. To accomplish that objective, the Azerbaijani fruit and vegetable market participants will have to analyze consumption trends in countries with maximal import potential and focus on investments in produce post-harvesting handling and transportation. She also stressed that to join efforts of all market participants (from growers to processors and suppliers) would be the most important element in successful development of fruit and vegetable exports.