Azerbaijan, Baku, 1 February / corr. Trend S. Babayeva / Should the import of poultry from abroad be terminated due the avian flu, domestic poultry production in Azerbaijan will be able to meet the demands of consumers, Ismail Hasanov, the head of the State Veterinary Service at the Ministry of Agriculture of Azerbaijan said at a press conference. "We have adequate poultry reserves," he said. Hasanov did not divulge the exact figures.
However, Aydin Valiyev, the head of the Republican Center of the Poultry Farmers earlier informed Trend that a temporary poultry import ban to Azerbaijan from Iran, Turkey, Russia and Great Britain, due to the outbreak of the avian flu, could bring the poultry enterprises of Azerbaijan to a standstill. The country lacks the reserves of hen's egg for incubation and the poultry farmers are obliged to purchase them from abroad, from the three countries which import bans are introduced. Once the farmers have exhausted their reserves, they will have to terminate production until the problem is settled, he said. According to Valiyev's forecast, the break within the domestic enterprises could lead to a deficit and a price increase in the country.
"Poultry farmers could buy the eggs for incubation from the Netherlands excluding VAT and it could be very costly," he said.