Azerbaijan, Baku / corr. Trend I.Khalilova / The constituent conference of the alliance of the nut exporters, which includes five companies, will take place at the beginning of November, said the Marketing Director of Azerbaijan Export and Investment Foundation (AZPROMO), Teymur Tagiyev.
According to him, currently the status of the alliance is being determined to submit to the Justice Ministry for registration. "Its form will like the alliance of juices which already functions although has not been registered yet," he said.
AZPROMO considers several variants of establishing the alliance - as commercial organization, public organization or public union which will be managed by the operator. Tagiyev said that probably the preference will be given to the final variant. A foreign company is envisaged to be attracted as operator.
Five nut-producing companies in Azerbaijan will be united in the alliance of nut exporters, including BakFem, Gilan, ElFem, Zakatala-findig (part of Azersun Holding) and Ali Said.
Currently the key producers of nuts are BakFem, Gilan, ElFem which have the capacity for large productions. BakFem and Gilan have been fully supplied with European equipment, but they have technical and management problems. Presently, the key nut producers in the country are BakFem, Gilan, ElFem, which possess tremendous production capacities. Enterprises BakFem and Gilan are fully provided with European equipment, but they still have problems of technological and management character, as well as aflatoxin element in the nuts.
The first task of the alliances will be to resolve the problems with aflatoxin and organize its production according to the European standards. The European experts are expected to visit Azerbaijan in the first quarter of 2007 to provide assistance in this process. They should assess the process of producing, keeping and transporting walnut in the Country. The support will be provided within the technical assistance of the German Society of Technical Assistance (GTZ). According to the searches by the German Society of Technical Assistance (GTZ), more than half of the nuts in the country are produced by the local companies and the remaining part by the Iranian and Turkish producers.