Azerbaijan eyes conquering EU food market Review by Caliber.Az

The traditional exhibition of food, horticulture, and agriculture - International Green Week 2023 - has recently kicked off in Berlin. Azerbaijani companies have taken part in the biggest regional exhibition for the past thirteen years and displayed several dozens of agricultural and food products. In recent years, with the active support of the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO), Azerbaijan's agribusiness companies have strengthened their positions in the markets of Arab countries and China. Today, amid the global food crisis and reduced supply to European markets, companies in Azerbaijan have additional opportunities to expand exports to the Old World.

The International Green Week exhibition has been held in Germany since 1926, and over the past decades, this has grown into a global agricultural forum for the demonstration of the latest technology in agriculture, the processing industry, and food production. Traditionally, the exhibition includes sales, shows of products and equipment for agriculture, forestry, and landscape design, as well as various symposia, seminars, and other events.

Notably, in 2021, due to the coronavirus pandemic and continuing quarantine restrictions, Green Week was held for the first time in an online format, and in 2022, due to the geopolitical, military, and economic crisis in the region, Green Week was cancelled. This year, the pavilions in Berlin again hosted the exhibition in a fully-fledged offline mode, and around four thousand companies from the agricultural and other specialist fields from sixty countries are now participating in this 87th forum. The number of visitors to Europe's leading agricultural trade fairgrounds traditionally reaches several hundred thousand, and thousands of media representatives cover the various events.

On January 20-29, 15 Azerbaijani companies specialising in wine, dried fruit, mineral water, meat and meat products, tea, and confectionery are taking part in International Green Week 2023. All these products are shown at Made in Azerbaijan exhibition display. According to the Ministry of Economy of Azerbaijan, Azerbaijan is participating in the biggest European agricultural forum for the 13th time, and this year visitors were able to sample the national cuisine of Azerbaijan. On the first day, the national pavilion was visited by agriculture ministers from Georgia and Uzbekistan, diplomats, representatives of the media, and specialised foreign agricultural companies. Yusif Abdullayev, head of AZPROMO, briefed the guests on the agrarian export potential, business, and investment opportunities of the country.

Speaking of the prospects of expansion of export of agricultural and food products, it is difficult to overestimate the importance of participation of Azerbaijan in the European profile forum of the "International Green Week". In the last five or six years, it was thanks to the efforts of AZPROMO and other structures of the Ministry of Economy, which provided local companies ample opportunities to participate in international food events, it was possible to overcome the inertia of export orientation exclusively to the CIS countries.

Of course, raw materials and fresh produce (tomatoes, other seasonal vegetables and fruits, nuts, raw cotton, tobacco) still form the basis of domestic agricultural exports. External demand for domestically produced sugar, vegetable oils, tea, honey, wine and brandy, canned goods and other foodstuffs is still relatively low. Nevertheless, after the pandemic recession, foreign shipments of "green" products are growing steadily. According to the Centre for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communications (CAERC), in 2022 total exports of domestic agricultural products totalled $912.4 million, an 11.8% increase over the previous year.

Moreover, until recently over 98% of Azerbaijan's agricultural supplies were exclusively to Russian and other post-Soviet markets. Now the diversification of exports has gradually changed this proportion. Food supplies to far-abroad countries are increasing, in particular to the countries of the Persian Gulf, Middle East and North Africa - Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar. In order to expand exports to the above mentioned Arab countries and especially to the capacious market of China, an extensive system of trading and wine houses has been established, the potential of trade missions under embassies is used, Azerbaijani companies participate in exhibitions, advertising and promotion campaigns are organized in leading trade networks of the world to promote our agricultural products under a single brand Made in Azerbaijan.

The most important task for AZPROMO for the foreseeable future is the expansion of agricultural supply to markets in Eastern and Southern Europe and the EU region as a whole. The first steps in this direction were taken in 2017-2019 as part of the first phase of the trade diversification policy, during which trade and wine houses of Azerbaijan were established in Poland and Latvia. These countries became a kind of hub for further transshipment of food products to the vast European market. Today, one can find Azerbaijani-produced grape wines and brandies, jams, compotes and fruit juices, canned fruits and vegetables, pomegranate sauce, and packaged fresh berries in a number of retail chains in the Old World. Olive oils and preserves, lavender oil, domestic tea, and organic honey are gradually being promoted through various exhibitions (including Green Week); in particular, negotiations are already underway for mass deliveries of honey harvested in the liberated territories under the common brand name "Karabakh", including to European countries. The prospects of supplying juices and wine from Azerbaijani pomegranates to the Western market are also real, while our country holds one of the best positions in the world for the export of persimmons and hazelnuts. In particular, Azerbaijan now ranks second in the world in the export of fresh and dried persimmons, second only to Spain, and ranks third in the supply of hazelnuts, with Switzerland, Italy, Poland, and other European states being major buyers of these nuts.

It is noteworthy that back in the pre-crisis 2019 food fair in Germany, Azerbaijani producers were able to agree to supply fresh tomatoes to the German market on a long-term basis, while agreements were also reached on pomegranate exports to the UK.

"Azerbaijan has great potential to increase the supply of agricultural products to European Union markets", Peter Mihalko, EU Ambassador to Azerbaijan, said at a recent conference in Baku on "Promotion of agro-tourism, agribusiness and food production through advisory services, as well as the development of new value chains". The ambassador said that the EU office in Azerbaijan, in cooperation with government agencies and the private sector, would work hard to support the development of the local agricultural sector and provide advisory services to help expand food exports.

And this interest is quite mutual: in recent years, numerous agreements aimed at expanding non-oil trade, including the entry of domestic agribusiness products into the markets of Hungary, Serbia, Croatia, and Bulgaria, have been signed in the course of the implementation of the energy strategy in Southern Europe. There is no doubt that this geography will expand over time, as the European market, currently facing a food crisis, is suffering tangible losses due to high inflation and shrinking supplies from Russia, Belarus, and war-torn Ukraine. In this regard, the diversification of Azerbaijani and EU trade by expanding the share of food supplies is in the interest of all parties.