BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 18
By Fidan Babayeva - Trend:
Up to 80 percent of Azerbaijan's tobacco products are exported to different countries of the near and far abroad, namely, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Bulgaria, Poland, Belgium, Indonesia, Director of the Production and Operations Department of the Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation Ilham Bayramov told Trend.
“The Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation plans to cooperate with transnational cigarette producing companies in the future,” Bayramov added. "For this purpose, tobacco samples were sent to the world's leading laboratories, namely, Brazil and Germany."
The director reminded that Azertutun Agro-Industrial Complex LLC is a member of the International Tobacco Growers Association, which includes 23 countries, leading producers of raw tobacco.
"It is planned to start to produce Virginia tobacco in Azerbaijan in 2021, which is most suitable for growing in the local climate,” Bayramov added. “The various types of Virginia tobacco seeds (17 types) imported from the US, Brazil, France and Hungary were tested by Azertutun Agro-Industrial Complex LLC on the experimental fields in 2020. Proceeding from the experts' opinion, a decision on the choice of the optimal type of seeds for growing in the local climate will be made."
Some 2,380 tons of raw tobacco worth $7.5 million were imported into the country in 2019.
The president approved the state program "On the development of the production of tobacco and tobacco products in Azerbaijan" on August 10, 2017. It is scheduled for 2017-2021.
One of its main goals is to increase the yield of tobacco up to 20 centners per hectare, expand the cultivated areas envisaged for tobacco to 6,000 hectares and increase the production volumes to 12,000 tons of tobacco.
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