Azerbaijan, Baku /corr. Trend I.Khalilova / The Government of Poland expresses concerns over the decrease in the trade turnover with Azerbaijan in 2007, which resulted from the termination of the Polish sugar import.
"It took place due to the construction of a sugar plant in Azerbaijan's district of Imishli. Traditionally Poland has acted as a sugar exporter to Azerbaijan. However, this situation causes low level of co-operation because excluding one product from the nomenclature led to 30% decrease of the trade turnover," said the Economy Minister of Poland, Petr Voznyak, who attended the seminar 'Economic co-operation of Azerbaijan and Poland - chances and prospects' within Polish National Exhibition in Baku on 7 November.
As a result of 2006 the trade turnover between the two countries made up $76mln, and in the recent eight months of 2007 - $45mln. According to the Minister, the level of the trade relations between Azerbaijan and Poland do not reflect the potential and possibilities and the key reason of low growth rates is the long distance between the two countries. Therefore, it is easier for Azerbaijan to import from Russia, but not from Poland. Despite this, all efforts will be made to expand the co-operation, the Minister said.
Polish Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Yan Kshishtof Adranovski, expressed an interest in importing fruits, juices, nuts, tea and wine from Azerbaijan and in its turn, Poland may offer meat products, chocolate, bakery products and strong drinks.
"The production of agricultural machines has highly developed in Poland. Quality of the tractors is not worse than those in the USA and Germany, but their price is cheaper," the Minister said. He considers that the co-operation between the two countries should not depend on trade. Therefore, the protocol between the Agriculture Ministries of the two countries was full of new proposals.
According to him, the interesting spheres are the co-operation between scientific and research institutes. Particularly, the Polish guests offered co-operation with regards to hydro-economy. In addition, co-operation was offered to Azerbaijan in the spheres of livestock and plant growing, especially semination of cattle and embryos. According to Adranovski, Azerbaijan takes an interest in potato seeds that also may assist in strengthening co-operation.