SAFE FOOD

Over the past fifteen years, the government has made numerous efforts to develop the agriculture and to ensure food safety in Azerbaijan. As a result, Azerbaijan has achieved the best indicators in the region for agrarian import substitution, and over the past few years has been making great efforts to expand the range and geography of agricultural exports. However, further development of the local agriculture industry and the development of foreign markets are impossible without improving the quality and safety of food products. Hence the establishment of the Food Safety Agency approved by the recent decree of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Quality for quantity

The agricultural-industrial complexes (AICs) maintains stable and positive dynamics of development despite a general decline in production in a number of sectors of domestic economy caused by the energy crisis. According to the State Statistics Committee, in January-October 2017, the production of agrarian products increased by 4%, including the livestock (2.8%) and plant growing (5.3%).

At the same time, the realities of the post-oil period have brought qualitative changes to the development of the domestic agribusiness: taking into account the comparative narrowness of the domestic market, the prospects for further growth in agricultural production are associated today with an increase in exports. In this direction, Azerbaijan has also achieved certain successes: in recent years, the supply of fresh and processed fruit and vegetable products to the CIS markets has increased, primarily to Russia, local winemaking enterprises, producers of juices and canned fruits, hazelnut, mutton are confidently developing new markets in China, the states The Middle East, Europe, the United States, etc. Measures are being taken to revive the production of traditional technical crops - cotton, silk, tobacco - products with high export potential.

According to the results of 2016, export of agricultural products from Azerbaijan reached $426.1 million, which is 21% higher than in 2016. This positive trend was also maintained this year. "Over the first nine months of 2017, Azerbaijan earned $396 million from the export of agrarian products. We expect that this indicator reaches $550 million by the end of this year," said Minister of Agriculture, Heydar Asadov. By the end of 2017, we can expect the growth of agricultural exports at least for another 20%.

However, along with these positive trends, it should be recognized that the current rates of import substitution and export of agricultural products are much lower than the potential. It is connected with a number of problems, and not least with the problem of quality and compliance with international standards.

The studies conducted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) almost two years ago confirmed the need to bring the quality control system over food products in line with international requirements. According to FAO, the infrastructure of collection, sorting, packaging, labeling of agricultural products is still poorly developed in the regions of Azerbaijan. There are significant problems and compliance with quality parameters in the production sector and the non-compliance of some products with international standards, which significantly reduces the export possibilities.

However, the issue of compliance with quality standards in the production of agricultural products is important not only for export expansion. This is no less relevant from the point of view of the security of the domestic food market. The situation in Azerbaijan in this area, according to some experts, is far from flawless.

It is noteworthy that the problems observed in Azerbaijan regarding the safety of domestic food market are only a part of the overall global problem. Worldwide, especially in developing countries, there has been a steady trend in deteriorating food safety. According to experts of FAO and World Health Organization (WHO), this poses significant risks for humanity. Therefore, all countries take measures to reduce risks to the following areas of food safety: preservation of national genetic resources - breeds of animals and plant varieties, increased control and tightening of standards on harmful ingredients that can cause irreparable damage to human health, as well as the development of environmentally friendly agriculture.

Discipline in the food market

In order to strengthen control over the production of agrarian products and, in general, over the country's food market, Food Safety Agency was established in February 2017 in Azerbaijan. Next day, President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on ensuring the activities of the agency, approved the position and structure of this organization, which will start operating from January 1, 2018. In particular, the structure of the new organization will consist of a central office (75 staff members) and regional offices, and the public legal entity Azerbaijan Food Safety Institute will also be operating under the auspices of the agency. The institute is responsible for conducting scientific and practical research on food safety, conducting risk assessment based on scientific principles, developing draft technical regulations in the field of food security and providing services to study food safety indicators.

In general, the agency and its structural units will be responsible for controlling the consumer market and will deal with a wide range of problems, including compliance with sanitary and epidemiological norms at enterprises, control over the production of agricultural raw materials and final products, verification of compliance quality and safety of imported food.

What specific tasks for ensuring food security will the new agency decide and how will this activity affect the development of the domestic agro industry and its export opportunities?

"Food Safety Agency will improve control over the quality of products. Public health and safety are number one priorities for our country. Fruit and vegetable products mainly become causes of intoxication because of the abundance of nitrates used in fertilization. There are many problems with packaging materials, which is very important for the export of our products," said Rajab Orujov, ex-Minister of Agriculture of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.

According to R. Orujev, the establishment of the agency will allow centralized control over food security, since this structure will be responsible for both imported and produced products within the country. Today, the functions of ensuring food security are distributed among several state structures of Azerbaijan, which have their own control structures and laboratories - they are in the ministries of economy, agriculture, State Committee for Standardization and Patent, State Customs Committee, etc.

"In comparison, in Turkey, all the functional activities related to food safety are carried out by a single body, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock. Most likely the laboratories in various Azerbaijani state agencies will also be subordinated to the newly established agency," said Orujev stressing that today all the necessary legislative base for the agency's activity has been created. However, the process of forming a centralized system of food security is rather complicated, it will be implemented in stages and take a certain amount of time.

... and quality monitoring

According to the member of the parliamentary Committee on Economic Policy, Industry and Entrepreneurship, Vahid Ahmadov, Azerbaijan has long been in need of establishing an order in the food market. The establishment of the Food Safety Agency will play an invaluable role in solving these problems. Ahmadov noted that the moratorium on inspections of entrepreneurs was recently extended in Azerbaijan until 2021, but not only the Ministry of Taxes will carry out inspections. "We receive many complaints about the quality of food products. Producers use various additives that cannot be used in production. Thus, it was decided to allow inspections in this direction," said Vahid Ahmadov.

The new structure will not duplicate the functions of other ministries and departments operating in the country and will not cause an increase in inspections of entrepreneurs, the deputy believes. According to him, the agency will get the right to monitor the quality of food products - it is noteworthy that other services did not have this right in the past.

While it is difficult to guess from which specific area the agency will start to implement its monitoring, it is possible that the market of alcoholic beverages will be included in the list of priority areas. The situation here is very difficult, several experts believe. In particular, experts of the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of Azerbaijan based on monitoring noted that the abolition of licenses in the field of import and sale of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products stimulated the development of this segment of business in the country. However, the side effect from the cancellation of licenses and the weakening of control in this segment was the growth in the import of counterfeit products and the production of counterfeit surrogates in Azerbaijan. According to the association, the scale of the problem is evidenced by the facts of mass buying of glass containers of famous world alcohol brands used for artisanal bottling of counterfeit alcohol products and its subsequent sale through bars and restaurants, as well as newly discovered by State Security Service (SSS) officers more than 600 thousand counterfeit excise stamps.

One of the ways to strengthen quality control and streamline processes related to the turnover of alcoholic beverages could be the establishment of a single state automated information system similar to institutions operating in other countries of the world. "We can expect that the Food Safety Agency will play an indispensable role in protecting consumer rights by strengthening control over the quality of food, including alcoholic beverages," believes the association.

Meanwhile, along with ensuring the security of domestic market, the agency will provide invaluable assistance in expanding the export capabilities of the domestic food industry. "The Institute for Food Safety contributes to ensuring food safety improving the quality of products produced in the country, and supporting a systematic approach in this area. It is important that the requirements for exported products be met in terms of both quality and packaging: the institute will also provide necessary support in both directions," said Sahib Mammadov, Deputy Minister of Economy of Azerbaijan.

The latter is extremely important in the light of the negotiations between Azerbaijan and the European Union on the new agreement on strategic partnership, which provides, in particular, diversification of trade relations and opens wide prospects for the export of agricultural products of Azerbaijani enterprises to Europe.