THROUGH A FIELD WITH A BASKET

As countryfolk say, a summer's day provides food for the year. At the end of August it is customary to make an initial review of the work of the farming sector and assess the situation regarding the country's food provision. For in the event of a shortage, prices at the markets will rise and goods will become inaccessible to consumers on low incomes.

If we can move ahead of ourselves a little, we would point out that the rate of growth in the agrarian sector totalled about 5 per cent for the first six months of the current year. And that means that the available resources of the sector are far from being used to their full potential, and the possibilities of private farms and enterprises in the country's processing industry have not been fully taken up at a local level. Thus, so far this year there has been a substantial increase in production in the agrarian sector, totalling 1,304,086,700 manats against 1,095,129,300 manats by the beginning of July 2006.

Grain the main issue

Of course, the most pressing issue at present is providing the country with grain. The republic's agriculture minister, Ismat Abbasov, has in the past given several assurances that the country is not expected to face a grain shortage. He said that production of food-grade wheat this year is forecast at 1.2m to 1.3m tonnes, against an overall forecast for the production of grain crops at a level of 2m tonnes. The minister's words are borne out by the official figures, according to which over 1.9m tonnes of winter barley and wheat have already been harvested in Azerbaijan, with an average yield of 25.7 qu/ha.

But high-quality flour cannot be obtained from any grain. If we consider that the country's annual requirement for food-grade wheat totals more that 1.6m tonnes, then about 500,000 tonnes will have to be imported. But grain has risen in price in the exporter countries and the government has therefore been quick to temporarily lift VAT on imported grain. At the same time, this decision has not affected imported flour, which reaches our market mainly from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. So a number of bakeries are trying to keep their profit levels up by reducing the weight of their bread or by raising their prices. Although, the Ministry of Economic Development has promised that it will not tolerate any artificial increase in the price of bread.

Enough fruit and vegetables

Meanwhile, the situation in fruit farming and the market gardening sector is looking brighter. Over the period specified, the country's gardens have produced and supplied to the market over 660,000 tonnes of produce, which is much more than last year's level. Specialists predict that by the end of the season the country's farmers will have gathered over 1m tonnes of produce. Analysis has shown that the vegetable harvest in the country's rural regions has increased by 4 per cent compared with the same period in 2006, with potato production rising by 4.2 per cent and totalling 554,400 tonnes. The fruit and berry harvest is also up by 5.3 per cent, totalling 147,400 tonnes.

But in spite of the abundance of fruit and vegetables, their prices have risen by nearly 50 per cent this summer. Suppliers are citing as the main reason for this the increase in transport costs caused by more expensive fuel. On the other hand, the farmers are complaining at delays in compensation promised to them to offset the rise in fuel prices. And of course, the farmers intend to sell some of the harvest in the autumn and winter period.

At the same time, the question of the storage of fruit and vegetables remains on the agenda. The Korean food research institute and the Azerbaijani agrarian science centre have therefore reached a preliminary agreement to carry out joint research on extending the shelf life of fruit and vegetables. The Koreans are already working on preparing and financing a draft document with this goal in mind.

Time to drink tea

The tea-growing sector, for which Azerbaijani agriculture has long been famed, is also of concern. With the collapse of the USSR this sector has also come to encounter great difficulties.

Thus, in 1985 the republic gathered a record harvest of green tea leaves totalling 31,700 tonnes. But within five years the sector started to decline and there was a sharp fall in the tea plantations' crops. If prior to the collapse of the USSR there were 1,400 tea plantations in Lankaran, this figure has now been halved. It is true, the government is currently trying to restore the former glory of Azerbaijani tea and efforts are being made to bring in investment for this purpose. But the point is that the prices of tea are very low and so it is not advantageous for farmers to engage in its production, especially as bushes only begin to yield a harvest after 7-8 years.

Azerbaijan's demand for tea stands at 23,000-24,000 tonnes and local producers are not able to meet it. The shortfall is made up by annual supplies of over 10,000 tonnes of natural tea. Among the varieties on offer, black natural tea without any aromatics or other additives predominates.

According to departmental chief at the Ministry of Agriculture Sabir Valiyev, 368,400 tonnes of green tea leaves were gathered in the first half of the year. He says that steps are currently being taken in line with the law "On the revival of the tea-growing sector" which should in the very near future not only regenerate the sector but also help producers and processing enterprises to flourish. Of the 14 plants which were previously in operation, only eight are still in working order. The remainder have been forced to stop work because of low yields and the consequent shortage of raw materials.

Livestock farmers urge scrapping of VAT

Against this background, successes in the livestock sector are encouraging. The number of cattle and sheep has risen by 7.2 per cent compared with last year, and live-weight meat production has exceeded 3.4 per cent, eggs 9.4 per cent and wool 0.6 per cent.

"Livestock farming currently being developed on a private footing accounts for 47 per cent of the country's overall agricultural output," says head of the international department at the Ministry of Agriculture Elxan Aliyev. "And this means that private livestock farming accounts for a half of all the agricultural output produced in Azerbaijan. It can now be said with confidence that private farms are not only meeting public needs for meat and meat products, but we have already starting exporting to such former Soviet countries as Russia, Georgia and Kazakhstan."

Farms hold over 2.4m head of cattle and more than 8.1m head of sheep. Over this period milk yields and meat weight increments have risen. And even though the volumes of output have increased, their prices have also started to rise. This is attributed by the farmers themselves to increases in the prices they pay for fodder and the costs of keeping the livestock. The same problem is currently being experienced by poultry farmers who say that their business will cease to be profitable unless conditions for the import of fodder are improved. The head of the country's society of poultry farmers, Aydin Valiyev, says that prices for poultry farming products could also rise because VAT has not been lifted on the purchase of fodder.

In other words, in spite of the growth in production of agricultural output in Azerbaijan compared with last year, in overall terms it has become rather more expensive, which is caused by a number of objective and subjective factors. As regards the former, it is virtually impossible to eliminate them by domestic efforts, but easing certain conditions for farmers to conduct their business would lead to a stabilization of the pricing situation on the market, experts believe.

To be fair, we would point out that the government is working in this direction. But the main thing is that the results should not come too late…