Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 18
By Matanat Nasibova – Trend:
Over the past three years, Azerbaijan has increased wheat production from 1.65 million to 1.8 million tons, the director of the Center for Agricultural Research under the Azerbaijani Ministry of Agriculture Parviz Hajiyev told Trend Oct. 18.
Hajiyev noted that, for example, in 2015, the volume of production of wheat amounted to 1.65 million tons, in 2016 and 2017 – to 1.8 million tons each.
However, Hajiyev noted that at the end of the current year, the indicators for wheat production may be lower than last year’s results.
"We believe that due to the unfavorable climatic conditions that were observed in April and May this year, the production volumes may decrease this year. Due to heavy rains during this period of the year, part of the crop was lost and, most likely, this will affect the production," Hajiyev said.
He further noted that the annual need for wheat in Azerbaijan amounts to three million tons. To cover the remaining need for wheat Azerbaijan imports an average of 1.2 million tons of wheat annually.
“The major part of imports falls to the share of Russia, but there are also small volumes of supplies from Kazakhstan. At the same time, our production covers about 60 percent of annual wheat consumption in the country,” the director of the center said.