BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 6
By Fidan Babayeva – Trend:
Pomegranate harvesting in Azerbaijan amounted to about 175,000 tons in 2019, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Pomegranate Producers and Exporters Association Farhad Garashov told Trend.
In 2018, 170,000 tons of pomegranates were grown in Azerbaijan, and 9,300 tons were exported, he noted.
The priority issue for 2020 is the increasing productivity, but there are some problems that farmers face, said Garasov.
“Difficulties are related to a lack of irrigation water, which negatively affects productivity. Moreover, the quality of the products that our farmers produce often doesn’t meet the standards of the world market, and for this reason the association decided to start conducting agrotechnical trainings,” the association’s said.
Garashov added that the STEP project will create conditions for wider coverage of these trainings and increase the export potential of Azerbaijani farmers.
“In 2019, some of our producers and farmers had incomplete sales of pomegranate and crop losses. Until this time, there were no sales problems. So, as a result of our state’s policy, the work of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Agriculture, the State Customs Committee (SCC), the Food Safety Agency and other structures in uninterrupted operation gave an impetus to export operations and, in general, to the stability of the sales process,” he said.
Azerbaijan Pomegranate Producers and Exporters Association has been operating since November 2016.
In 2019, the association was extremely beneficial, so the number of members of the organization increased almost 10 times.
By the end of 2019, the number of association’s members grew to 345 compared to 34 in 2018. The association also works closely with international organizations on developing pomegranate production.
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