Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 26
By Huseyn Veliyev – Trend:
Meat and sausage production in Azerbaijan has seen a 20 percent decline during the last couple of years, Vugar Khanbeyli, board member of Gulhane LLC (supplying raw materials for the manufacture of meat products), told Trend.
Previously, if the full-time work day of the meat producing enterprises was 12 hours, now work is completed by the end of the first half of the day.
"The main problem of the meat product market in Azerbaijan is the lack of production of raw materials necessary for the production of sausage products. An overwhelming part of beef and chicken are imported, and this equals to additional costs for the logistics and rental of refrigerators. As a result, the final product becomes non-competitive. It’s important that local producers focus on expanding the production of raw materials," he said.
There are, according to Khanbeyli, plenty of problems in the industry, and one of them is late payment from customers, mainly from the retail sales network.
"Because of this, debts accumulate, and the customers cannot pay suppliers, who, in turn, remain indebted to manufacturers. This clearly has a negative effect on the development and expansion of business," said Khanbeyli.
The damage to business is also caused by inadequate materials published in the press, alleging that meat products of unknown origin are used in the production of sausages.
"As such, the consumer has formed distrust to local products. Many are inclined to believe that, when compared with local products, meat products of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian production on the market are of a higher quality, which is far from being true. Russia, for example, does not have strict market control, and most of the products supplied to Azerbaijan are counterfeit," said Hanbeyli.
The Association of Meat and Meat Products Suppliers regularly touches upon topical issues and problems and holds meetings with government departments of the country.
"For example, to improve the quality and competitiveness of local products, applying changes to the recipe of the products has been proposed. We have studied recipes used in other countries. The business faces great difficulties in the export of meat products. Attempts at improving the exports by local producers have not been fruitful, as many countries see us as competitors and are strongly opposed to import supplies. All their efforts are aimed primarily at protecting the domestic market," said Khanbeyli.