Azerbaijan, 5 May / Trend corr U. Ismayilova/ "Intensive agricultural development in Azerbaijan may help in preventing rise in the bread prices," Ogtay Hagverdiyev, ex-head of Economy & Financial and Credit Policy Department at the Cabinet Administration, said on 5 May.
"Expansion of sown areas method is applied in Azerbaijan for agricultural development, though it would be much efficient to double the harvest in the same area," Hagverdiyev said.
According to Hagverdiyev, if harvest from each hectare is increased by average 48% to 40 centners by amalgamation of economies, then Azerbaijan will be able to completely meet its domestic demand through its own production.
Azerbaijan's annual grain demand is 3mln tons, 1mln tons of which is imported.
"Even if Azerbaijan is able to meet its domestic grain demand, we will not be able to avoid the processes on-going in the world. So, rise in the prices for foodstuffs is inevitable," Hagverdiyev said.
According to the expert, oil price, which has exceeded $120/barrel, is one of the most important factors affecting prices of the foodstuffs. "Given the fact that engineering is the most important element in agriculture, besides nature and manpower, so hike in prices is inevitable," Hagverdiyev said.
Last week, the price for bread rose in Azerbaijan from AZN 0.3 to AZN 0.4. The rise occurred because Kazakhstan banned the grain export from April until September to protect its own domestic market from high prices.
In summer 2007, bread price in Azerbaijan rose from AZN 0.20 to AZN 0.30. Experts stated that the hike was caused due to the reduction of harvest in main exporting countries - Russia and Kazakhstan. In summer, Azerbaijan stopped the grain export from Russia because the exporter added 22 euro to the price for every ton of exported grain. Export from Russia has not yet been resumed.
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