BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 16. The UAE is ready to expand cooperation with Azerbaijan in the field of agriculture and food security, Amna Al Dahak Al Shamsi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment of UAE, told Trend.
The minister made the remark on the sidelines of the Azerbaijan-UAE food and agriculture business roundtable in Baku.
"Today, the UAE and Azerbaijan enjoy strategic relations. Especially since the signing of the comprehensive strategic partnership cooperation agreement between the two countries, our relations have entered a further stage of development," she said.
Al Shamsi noted that the volume of UAE-Azerbaijan non-oil trade reached US$2.4 billion, a 43 percent increase over the previous year.
"At the same time, the total volume of investments from the UAE and Azerbaijan is $1 billion. Through the comprehensive strategic partnership cooperation agreement and ongoing negotiations, we aim to further develop this, especially in the agriculture and food sector.
Today's event—a roundtable on agriculture and food business—brought together various stakeholders from the UAE, including national government representatives, companies, and the private sector. The main objective of this roundtable is to initiate discussions, identify opportunities, and turn these opportunities into concrete and significant projects for Azerbaijan and the UAE. As part of these discussions, key players from the UAE, such as Silal, LULU, EFCO, and Al-Dahra, as well as the Food and Beverage Business Group, held meetings with Azerbaijani partners.
We look forward to following these discussions, ensuring their progress, and taking steps to achieve our mutual goals," she pointed out.
The minister emphasized that the UAE and Azerbaijan have strengths in the agricultural and food business, and these strengths can be used to expand cooperation:
"Azerbaijan is strong in agriculture, while the UAE has high-tech, smart agriculture and strong logistics capabilities, which can help open up new markets through cooperation.
We aim to translate these discussions into concrete projects and celebrate their results in both Azerbaijan and the UAE. We intend to continue cooperation with the partners with whom we initiated today's talks in the future.
As the UAE, we focus on various areas, from fresh produce to livestock, meat, and dairy products. We'll prioritize areas of cooperation and implement this cooperation with the right business partners. Therefore, it was important to bring business players from both countries together at the same table so that discussions can begin and be realized in the near future," the minister concluded.
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