Russia and Azerbaijan signed an agreement on cooperation in plant protection and quarantine.
The agreement was signed by head of the Russian agricultural watchdog (Rosselkhoznadzor) Sergey Dankvert and the chairman of the Food Safety Agency of Azerbaijan Goshgar Tahmazli.
The signing ceremony took place as part of the state visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to Azerbaijan.
"Since 2021, Rosselkhoznadzor, together with the Food Safety Agency of the Republic, has been systematically working to agree on the draft agreement. The document also included sections on control in the field of safe handling of pesticides and agrochemicals. There is a progressive development of trade and economic relations between the countries," the agency said.
According to the draft agreement, the sides will plan joint measures to enhance quarantine phytosanitary security and protection of both states from importation and spread of quarantine pests, reduce the losses they cause, and eliminate barriers to international trade in quarantine products.
Every batch of imported or transited quarantine products must have a phytosanitary certificate or a re-export phytosanitary certificate issued by the authorized agency of the exporting state. Such agencies are Russia's Rosselkhoznadzor and the Azerbaijani Food Safety Agency.
Supplies of persimmons from Azerbaijan to Russia since the beginning of 2024 have increased by 71.3% compared to the same period in 2023, supplies of nectarines have grown by 34.2%, the Russian agricultural watchdog reported.
"Since the beginning of 2024, 338,700 tons of Azerbaijani fruit and vegetable products have been delivered to Russia, which is comparable with the volume of goods delivered for the same period in 2023 - 352,000 tons," the report says.
Nevertheless, there has been a sharp increase in persimmon supplies, which soared by 71.3% since the beginning of the year from 18,200 to 31,200 tons. Supplies of nectarines increased by 34.2% - from 14,100 to 19,000 tons, exports of peaches went up by 26.6% - from 13,700 to 17,400 tons, supplies of strawberries grew by 10.7% - from 17.6 to 19.5 thousand tons, supplies of tomatoes increased by 9.7% - from 106,000 to 116,200 tons.
The volume of food potato exports from Russia increased significantly - by 2.7 times compared to the same period in 2023, to 23,000 tons, and onion exports also increased by 5.1 times, to 7,700 tons, the report says.
