Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 22
By Matanat Nasibova – Trend:
Hazelnut products under the Made in Azerbaijan brand will be showcased at international exhibitions in China and Paris till the end of this year, Nizami Emreli, leading specialist and head of the European department of the Azerbaijan Hazelnut Industry Company AZERSTAR, told Trend.
"We regularly participate in the most famous agricultural exhibitions and in the coming months we intend to showcase our products at international exhibitions to be held in France and China in October and November 2018,” he said. “The products sent to China will be exhibited in Azerbaijan’s new trade house. Presently, we are negotiating with our potential foreign buyers about the signing of contracts this year or at the beginning of next year."
Emreli stressed that both private companies, including confectionery factories, can be potential buyers of Azerbaijan’s hazelnut products.
"These exhibitions, as a rule, gather the biggest European companies,” he said. “The discussions on the prospects for further cooperation are underway. Therefore, we intend to actively supply hazelnut products outside the country. The work in this direction has been going on a long time.”
“For example, Azerbaijan’s hazelnut products were supplied to Spain in 2017,” Emreli said. “In the future we plan to increase export volumes, taking into account the great demand for our products in the consumer market of this country. Our company was the first company that directly supplied Azerbaijan’s hazelnut products to Denmark and Scandinavia."
He also stressed that the company plans to open a warehouse in Moscow.
"We have a company with which we work, but we do not have our own warehouse for storing our products,” Emreli added. “We would like to realize this task soon. Presently, our company is the only company in Azerbaijan that has warehouses in the EU countries. Our representative office is in Estonia while the warehouses are located in Tallinn and Hamburg."
“The availability of warehouses provides an opportunity not only for storage of products, but also for supply of products in small quantities to foreign customers,” he said.
"Not less than 20 tons of products are usually supplied by Azerbaijan and some buyers, including European and Russian ones, can not afford such big volumes,” Emreli said. “Moreover, the prices for these products on the market may vary due to the supply of other competing companies. Taking into account all these nuances, we keep the stock in our European warehouses for our potential customers."
He added that presently, Azerbaijan has great opportunities for export of hazelnuts because other nuts and chestnuts, which are also grown in Azerbaijan, cover only domestic demand.