Information for fruit and vegetables business in CIS
Azerbaijan boosts tomato exports
Azerbaijan is engaged in the efforts to diversify the non-oil economy and increase exports of non-oil products.
The main market in 2017 traditionally remained Russia, importing goods worth $553 million and which is more than a third of the total volume of this sector.
The main export product of the non-oil sector in 2017 was tomatoes, the total volume of purchases on foreign markets amounts to $151.6 million.
A significant part of all year round vegetables grown in Azerbaijan falls on greenhouse complexes.
Interest in vegetables, and especially in Azerbaijani tomatoes, began to increase since 2004, and this undoubtedly affected the economic activities of farms that began to expand the area of vegetable gardens for growing products. The peak year for tomato production became 2008, when the production areas reached 27.212 hectares throughout the country.
Today, the export of tomatoes is the most profitable area of the non-oil sector. For the first eight months of 2017, it brought $128 million the country, growth of almost 60 percent.
Recently, President IIham Aliyev, opened a new greenhouse in Baku Agropark, located in Zira settlement, which covers 11 hectares areas for cultivation of tomatoes. The first phase of this tomato greenhouse project in Azerbaijan was started by the Dutch greenhouse construction company, Debets Schalke on December 2016. Last July, this project was completed and the cultivation started.