Azerbaijan, Baku, 8 May / Trend corr. S.Babayeva / Azerbaijan seeks for alternative grain suppliyers, after Kazakhstan exerted prohibition on the grain export from April to autumn.
"The Azerbaijani Government is holding negotiations with various countries to purchase the grain," Sabir Valiyev, Head of the Department on production and development of crop production and state regulating of food reserves at the Azerbaijani Agricultural Ministry, stated.
Ministry suggested Canada and Australia amongst the potential importers.
At present, a monitoring is being held to reveal the volume of grain and wheat reserve available within the country. The results of the monitoring will be released within three weeks.
"We will reveal how much grain our country needs after the monitoring," the representative of Agricultural Ministry stated.
Currently, about 70% of grain demand is covered through domestic production. In 2008, the production will be tried to increase by 300,000 or 350,000 tons because of additional 120,000 sowing areas. Wheat production is forecasted at 2.3mln in 2008.
Annual grain demand in Azerbaijan is 3mln tons, with 1.5mln tons of bread grain.
Recently, Serik Primbetov, Kazakhstan Ambassador in Azerbaijan stated to journalists that Kazakhstan has commissioned three Ministers on an issue of shipping grain to Azerbaijani companies when a prohibition has been imposed on grain export since April.