BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 17
By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:
Azerbaijan has joined the Agro Express logistics project on rapid food supply, which is being implemented by Russia and Uzbekistan, the Ministry of Economy of the Russian Federation told Trend on Jan. 17.
According to the ministry, the advantages of the Agro Express project in the future will be additional competitive delivery conditions, cost reduction due to the elimination of transshipment operations along the route of transportation of goods, which will create the necessary conditions for removing logistical barriers and creating the commodity distribution infrastructure.
“Russia has a positive experience in organizing export routes in the direction of East and Central Asia within the Agro Express project,” Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Dmitry Volvach said.
Volvach added that the cooperation with Azerbaijan in this sphere will provide conscientious participants in the foreign economic activity of the two countries with regular rail service having full fiscal traceability and guaranteed safety of the consumer property.
“The project will cover the EAEU in the future and the EAEU member-states are interested in it,” the deputy minister said. “We plan to discuss this issue at the next meeting of the Eurasian Economic Commission.”
Moreover, Director General of the Russian Export Center Veronika Nikishina thinks that the opening of a new route within the Agro Express project will allow exporters to quickly deliver products to buyers without unnecessary logistical problems.
“Taking into account the volume of bilateral trade between Russia and Azerbaijan, it is possible to ensure the movement of two mixed trains every month,” Nikishina added. “Grain, vegetable oil and confectionery products will be exported from Russia while fresh vegetables and fruits from Azerbaijan.”
“The successful launch of the project implementation will also increase the volume of export along the North-South international transport corridor by connecting neighboring countries to the route for the supply of agricultural products,” Nikishina said.
During the activity, Russian Railways Logistics JSC and Alliance Logistics LLC (Azerbaijan) reached an agreement on the consolidation of goods and transportation both in covered hoppers and in containers, as well as on an agreed discount on the full logistic rate.
The rates have been set for the Samur-Derbent route (vegetables, fruits) in covered hoppers and Sumgayit-Moscow/Vorsino/Rostov route (polypropylene) in containers and covered hoppers.
When agreeing on rates for other goods, on which the price of transportation depends, it is possible to process point queries from exporters and individual calculations for each shipment.
Director General of Russian Railways Logistics Dmitry Murev thinks that this is a profitable route in terms of timing and economy compared to the Suez Canal, especially for the transportation and transshipment of grain, fruits, chemical and petrochemical products.
“Today, experts estimate the volume of the cargo base for the Agro Express project on the routes of the North-South international transport corridor at the level of 60,000 tons per year,” Murev added.
Murev stressed that this is an advantageous route in terms of timing and economy compared to the Suez Canal, especially for the transportation and transshipment of grain, fruits, chemical and petrochemical products.
“The volume of transported goods can be increased to 100,000 tons by 2025,” the director general of Russian Railways Logistics said.
“We are cooperating with the Azerbaijani side intensively, Russian Export Center JSC and the project management to create a sustainable route for export and import of agricultural and industrial products,” Murev said.
The first "Agro Express" train transported goods via the Russia - Uzbekistan - Russia route in a test regime in late 2021.
The specialists managed to work out all the technological and control issues for further replication of the project thanks to the experiment.
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