BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr.7
By Fidan Babayeva - Trend:
The introduction of a special quarantine regime in the country in order to strengthen measures to combat the spread of coronavirus infection has seriosly affected persimmon sales in the domestic market, the Azerbaijani Balkhoorma company's Director Isfandiyar Isfandiyarov told Trend on April 7.
According to him, the domestic demand for persimmons has sharply decreased over the past period.
"This figure is much lower compared to the same period of last year. It’s natural. At such times, people usually start buying more important products such as flour, pasta, buckwheat and others, trying to avoid unnecessary expenses," he said.
As Isfandiyarov noted, sales from February through March 2020 decreased by 70 percent compared to the same period of last year.
"Since we are an export-oriented company and have very low sales in the domestic markets, we hope that the worldwide situation will not worsen. In 2019, the company's products were exported to Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania and the UAE, and the revenues from export amounted to $1.1 million," he added.
Balkhoorma company began its operations in 2019. The capacity of the plant is 20 tons a week. The company is producing various goods from persimmon, including dried, semi-dried persimmon and persimmon chips.