BAKU, Azerbaijan, Mar. 3
By Fidan Babayeva – Trend:
It is planned to increase the volume of tobacco production up to 3,000 tons in Azerbaijan in 2020, Director of the Agrarian Production and Trade Department of the Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation OJSC Ilham Bayramov told Trend.
In 2019, 2,200 tons of dry tobacco leaves of the Virginia botanical variety were produced throughout the country,” Bayramov emphasized.
The director added that the volume of exports from Azerbaijan to Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia and Poland amounted to 1,293 tons in 2019, 475 tons of which accounted for Russia.
Touching upon the issue of registration of tobacco cargo, Bayramov noted that earlier there were certain delays during export due to the procedure for processing cargo.
But with the accession to the Green Corridor system of the State Customs Committee in 2019, the shipment process was accelerated and simplified, the director said.
In 2020, in addition to traditional markets, European countries will also be a priority, he added.
The director said that within the framework of the state program on the development of production of tobacco and tobacco products in Azerbaijan, information on these products from such regions of the country as Yevlakh, Shaki, Gakh, Zagatala and Balakan was transmitted through the Azexport portal into international electronic trading platforms, including All.biz, Agroserver, Tradekey and others, and that after integration, the number of requests for the export of raw tobacco began to increase.
On August 10, 2017, the head of state approved the state program on the development of tobacco and tobacco products in Azerbaijan for 2017-2021. One of its main goals is to increase tobacco productivity to 20 centners per hectare, expand the cultivated area of tobacco to 6,000 hectares and increase production to 12,000 tons of tobacco.