Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec. 2
By Anvar Mammadov - Trend:
The deterioration of Russian-Turkish relations can lead to increased demand for Azerbaijani products in Russia, a source in the Azerbaijani government told Trend.
This situation will force Russia to cover the shortage of agricultural products, according to the source.
"Of course, Russia has begun to look for new markets for the supply of products," the source said. "Any country would have acted the same way. Accordingly, some countries now will try to occupy the market niche. On the other hand, this will force Russia to establish its own production."
The source went on to add that Russia at the time itself applied to Azerbaijan for increasing the supply of meat and dairy products.
"As a result, Azerbaijani ministry of economy and industry prepared indicative lists of companies the products of which can be exported to Russia," said the source.
To date, the registry of the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russia (Rosselkhoznadzor) includes seven Azerbaijani producers of meat and dairy products, which have been identified as a result of the appropriate monitoring of Azerbaijani enterprises.
Among them are such companies are AZFP CO LTD, Atena, Milk Pro and Ganca sud, exporting milk and dairy products, Ucar Aqro and Devechi Broyler, supplying meat products, as well as Caspian Fish company, which exports fish, fish products and seafood.
At present, another company is interested in exporting its products to Russia, Tofig Atazade, the head of the Inspectorate of the State Veterinary Service under the Azerbaijani Ministry of Agriculture, told Trend.
"At present, we have one request from Sahliyali company, engaged in the sausage production," he said. "The company appealed to us two or three months ago. We provided them with the requirements of the Russian Federal Agency for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision."
"We will conduct the initial monitoring next week. Afterwards, we will submit the initial act to the company. The second copy will be attached to the package of appeals to the Federal Agency for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision."
The Federal Agency for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision can automatically include this company to the registry or to send a monitoring group for its own check following the appeal.
Atazade also urged Azerbaijani companies wishing to export their products to Russia, to appeal to the Federal Agency for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision in advance to get the Russian requirements, to which they must comply.
Azerbaijan has produced 385,100 tons of meat in live weight, 1.63 million tons of milk, 1.29 billion eggs and 16,800 tons of wool in Jan.-Oct. 2015. Meat production in the country has increased by 1.8 percent compared to the same period in 2014, milk - 3.8 percent, wool - 1.4 percent, while the egg production has decreased by 0.7 percent.
Russia's demand for increasing the import of goods from a number of countries, in particular, from the CIS is a result of the restrictions for the import of these goods from the US, the EU countries, Canada, Australia and Norway. The country has imposed these restrictions in response to the sanctions of the West after the deterioration of the relations due to the situation in Ukraine.
Based on the reached agreements, Azerbaijan has significantly increased the supply of agricultural products to Russia since summer of 2014.
Trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Russia in Jan.-Oct. 2015 stood at $1.53 billion of which $322.22 million accounted for the export to Russia, according to Azerbaijan's State Customs Committee.
Edited by SI
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