Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 7
By Huseyn Valiyev – Trend:
Lebanon has been included in the list of importers of Azerbaijani hazelnuts, Chairman of the Azerbaijan Hazelnuts Producers Association Ismayil Orujov told Trend Jan. 7.
He said that hazelnuts are exported to more than 20 countries.
“The main export volume of hazelnuts in 2018 accounted for Russia,” he noted. “Europe is also a significant consumer of Azerbaijani hazelnuts. As we expected, there was an increase in the production of hazelnuts in 2018, but the weakening of the Turkish lira exchange rate against the US dollar led to decrease in exports of Azerbaijani hazelnuts. Lower prices proposed by Turkish exporters for European buyers significantly reduced competitiveness of Azerbaijani hazelnuts.”
If 14,500 tons of products were exported in the last quarter of 2017 (mainly in September-December), exports decreased by more than 40 percent in the same period of 2018, he said.
“A greater decline in exports isn’t expected, because more than 50 percent of the products weren’t exported,” said Orujov. “As for the production volume for the current year, it will be possible to predict it after April.”