"Made in Azerbaijan" agricultural products: from attracting investors to increasing exports Review by Caliber.Az

Amidst the global food crisis and rising prices of imports, Azerbaijan carries out large-scale reforms in the agricultural sector to ensure food security through the growth of domestic production. In this regard, a number of measures are being implemented to develop the agro-industrial complex and to attract foreign capital and advanced technologies. The prospects for the domestic agro-industrial sector and the interests of international agribusiness have been demonstrated by the XXVIII WorldFood Azerbaijan-2023 food industry exhibition and the XVI Caspian Agro agricultural exhibition, which opened yesterday in Baku Expo Center. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva attended the exhibitions.

The global food crisis observed since the middle of last year, which deepened considerably with the outbreak of war in Ukraine, as well as high imported inflation in 2022 has caused huge damage to the food security of most developing countries. Unfortunately, this negative has not passed over Azerbaijan, whose agro-industry is still heavily dependent on imports of agricultural raw materials, high-yield seeds, breeding stock, semi-finished products, compound feed, food additives, vitamins, drugs and vaccines, containers, components for agricultural machinery and equipment. All this has affected the work of farms and has had an equally tangible impact on the domestic processing and food industry, resulting in higher prices for locally produced foodstuffs.

In order to overcome the consequences of the global crisis, the country's government aims to intensify agrarian reforms, and in accordance with the programme "National Priorities for Socio-Economic Development: Azerbaijan 2030", large-scale changes in agriculture are expected in the next 6-7 years. The growth of productivity is to be achieved primarily through the introduction of advanced agricultural technologies, economical irrigation systems, digitalisation of sector management systems, and the innovative development of new land in the Karabakh region. It is also planned to reduce costs in the processing and food industry through the development of agricultural parks, cooperatives and enlarged grain farms, creation of logistics enterprises to increase mass production of food, oriented both for export and for sustainable import substitution.

"Intensive methods of agriculture development are directly linked to the introduction of innovations that multiply the productivity, increase the efficiency of land and water use, reduce production costs, and contribute to higher incomes of rural producers," Agriculture Minister Mejnun Mammadov said at the opening of WorldFood Azerbaijan-2023 and Caspian Agro exhibitions. - In this sense, it is very important that the specialized exhibitions help to raise awareness of domestic farmers about innovations in the field of groundbreaking agricultural equipment and technology, and we hope that these forums will help to share experiences and establish mutually beneficial business relationships. I'm sure that the exhibitions timed to the 100th anniversary of national leader Heydar Aliyev will also be memorable for the presentation of numerous agricultural innovations and further expansion of cooperation between domestic and foreign companies.

The 2023 exhibition season has shown a very high growth in the number of participants: according to Farid Mammadov, director general of Caspian Event Organisation, over 160 companies from 17 countries are taking part in the food industry forum alone, which this year has increased by 30%. A record number of 479 companies from 31 countries have confirmed their participation in the two specialized exhibitions. This growth has been achieved primarily by successfully attracting foreign companies, including newcomers. Foreigners accounted for 71% of all exhibitors, and came from most European countries, as well as Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Türkiye, Israel, the USA, India, China, Thailand, Sri Lanka and, for the first time, Tunisia. In general, around two thousand foreign entrepreneurs, consultants and experts are expected to come to Azerbaijan.

It should be noted that the activity of local agricultural companies and farms has noticeably increased this year: some 600 farmers from 40 regions of Azerbaijan, including producers from the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR), where agricultural production and processing are well developed, are taking part in the exhibitions, and there are many ecological and organic products in total. The participation of entrepreneurs from NAR, which is currently undergoing major reforms, will help to attract investments into agriculture.

The growing number of participants in the exhibitions is evidence of a strong interest in Azerbaijan's booming agricultural market, said Togrul Qafarbeyli, head of the Protocol Department at the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan. "The pavilion of the NAR's Ministry of Agriculture will be displayed for the first time, regional groups from several former Soviet countries, as well as Germany, Italy, Sri Lanka and the USA, and nine countries will be represented by national stands". The fact that a large number of exhibitors will be from countries outside the region is evidence of the willingness of major international agribusiness and investors to participate in the technological and structural reforms currently underway in the Azerbaijani agricultural sector.

Foreign companies have expressed interest in particular in agricultural clusters being set up in Azerbaijani territories that have been liberated from occupation, and large-scale projects on introduction of economical irrigation technologies, intensive methods in grain production, livestock farming, greenhouse farming, reduction of losses in food sector and so on. In this regard, last year and this year the exhibitions were attended by Turkish and Israeli companies involved in projects to develop the agricultural potential of the Karabakh and East Zangazur economic regions, create "smart" villages there, introduce "green" technologies, including "artificial intelligence", IT services, drones in agriculture.

"Of the irrigation systems used in Azerbaijan today only 5% are equipped with modern equipment and control systems, so one of our main goals is to increase the scale of implementation of modern equipment in irrigation systems," Mammadov said during the panel discussion organized at the forum. The minister stressed that the competent management of water resources is the main way to reduce the negative impact of global warming on agriculture. In this regard Azerbaijan has been very actively cooperating with Israeli companies - world leaders in the field of economical irrigation systems and desalination of water. Not long ago, an agreement was signed between Azerbaijan Land Reclamation and Water Management OJSC and Mekorot, an Israeli company specialising in water management. Israel also intends to provide Azerbaijan with unique technologies to multiply the yield of wheat, to establish production of high-yield seeds of vegetable and fruit crops, to assist in breeding, formation of "smart" greenhouse farms, high-yield livestock breeding. Baku and Tel-Aviv are also cooperating in training highly qualified personnel in modern trends in agriculture: 50 Azerbaijani students are expected to study in agricultural universities of Israel.

The agricultural and food exhibitions held at Baku Expo Center play an equally important role in increasing international cooperation, contributing to the growth of exports of local food products. Speaking at the opening ceremony, chairman of the Food Security Agency of Azerbaijan Qoshqar Tahmazli said that thanks to the steps taken in recent years in Azerbaijan's crop farms an effective system of control over the health of plants has been formed, laboratories for molecular diagnostics were set up and the number of examinations for pesticide residues in agricultural products has increased. Due to strengthened veterinary control measures, the share of animals infected with zoonotic diseases in the total number of animals has decreased from 5% in 2018 to 2.3% in 2022, and a system of animal identification and registration has been formed to ensure animal health. "Thus, for the first time consent was given for export of fish caviar grown in Azerbaijan under aquaculture conditions, and implemented control measures have allowed export of hazelnut from our country to EU member states on simplified terms, agreements were reached on supply of animal skins and wool from our country to EU," Tahmazli noted.

It is obvious that all the above measures taken by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan, as well as contacts and negotiations at WorldFood Azerbaijan and Caspian Agro forums will play a significant role in expanding domestic agricultural exports under the "Made in Azerbaijan" brand.