BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 17
By Fidan Babayeva – Trend:
Azerbaijan continues to purchase tobacco products abroad, which creates some problems for the sale of local products, Director of the Department of Production and Operations of the Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation Ilham Bayramov told Trend.
"There are two main reasons for the import of tobacco products by Azerbaijan," Bayramov added.
"The issue is that about 20 varieties of different tobacco are used with different quality indicators (nicotine, sugar, etc.) for the production of cigarettes, depending on the brand and recipes of technologists," Bayramov added. "It is impossible to grow some of them in Azerbaijan due to weather. The volume of dry tobacco leaves, cut-strip tobacco and other by-products which are used in the production of cigarettes in Azerbaijan is very small compared to the total volume that is used as raw tobacco."
The director emphasized that in accordance with the analysis of the agro-industrial complex, 2,380 tons of raw tobacco worth $7.5 million were imported into the country in 2019.
"As most of these products are manufactured in our country, the product quality indicators meet the requirements of the relevant standards due to our measures," Bayramov added. "Therefore, local manufacturers and technologists must be interested in using local raw materials."
The director also stressed that moreover, a number of cigarette manufacturers operating in Azerbaijan do not carry out the processing process, but import the components of cigarettes, including the main raw materials and simply complete the production process by packaging.
The president approved the state program on the development of tobacco and tobacco products in Azerbaijan on August 10, 2017. The program is planned for 2017-2021. Its main goals are to increase tobacco productivity up to 20 centners per hectare, expand the cultivated area of tobacco up to 6,000 hectares and an increase in production up to 12,000 tons of tobacco.
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