Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 29
By Matanat Nasibova - Trend:
Azerbaijan’s Az-Granata LLC, which produces fruit juices and alcoholic beverages, has signed a major export contract with Russia’s GM Training LLC, director for alcohol production of Az-Granata LLC Vugar Mikayilov told Trend.
He said that the contract worth $3 million has been signed recently.
“Under the contract, we will supply alcoholic beverages to Russia, namely different types of wines, cognacs and pomegranate juices,” Mikayilov said. “Our alcohol products under the Made in Azerbaijan brand are popular not only in the Russian market, but also in China and many countries of Europe. At the moment we are exporting alcoholic beverages to the US, Japan, China, Europe, Baltic countries and to a number of CIS countries.”
He noted that in the future, the geography of export supplies will expand.
He added that negotiations are underway on the supply of Azerbaijani cognac to South America.
“We expect the sales of our cognac products to be as successful as wine and pomegranate juice in the foreign markets of Europe and the US,” he said. “By the end of the year, we intend to increase the volume of export of wine products and juices to China and Europe at least twice. Presently, the export volumes to these countries aren’t very big, but they are continuous.”
He noted that the varieties of wine and cognac products in Azerbaijan are of high quality and fully comply with international standards for manufacturing technology and organoleptic qualities.
The plant for production of alcoholic beverages built on an area of 2.5 hectares in 2011 is one of the biggest producers of fruit juices in the South Caucasus.
The plant has the capacity to produce 12 tons of fruit juice per hour.
The plant also has lines for processing such fruits as pomegranate, grapes, apples, pears and quince.
Cleaning, sorting, high-temperature sterilization and storage of fruits in aseptic tanks (40 units with a capacity of 50 tons) are carried out in the workshops of the plant.
The factory has equipment of German, Swiss, Italian, Bulgarian and French production.
The Az-Granata company has 400 hectares of vineyards and 450 hectares of pomegranate gardens, which are certified by the German institute Lacon GmbH.