Azerbaijan has exported 33,000 apples to Russia in 5 months after Russia banned imports of food from Europe. The leaders of apple exports to Russia in the 2013/2014 season, Poland and Moldova, have lost their positions. Alexey Alexeyenko, assistant of the agricultural surveillance agency Rosselkhoznadzor, told Vestnik Kavkaza that Azerbaijan had taken firm positions on the Russian market and would hardly be weakened, should the Russian ban be lifted.
According to his evaluation, the new level of Russian-Azerbaijani economic cooperation has long-term prospects: development of logistics will progress, shipments will arrive earlier.
Economist Oktay Akhverdiyev noted that Azerbaijan was producing about 800,000-900,000 tons of fruits annually, about half of the volume was apples. The national market, he said, was consuming about 350,000 tons, leaving a large volume for exports. Azerbaijan needs to systemize exports to make them more regular, believes the expert.
Akhverdiyev reminded that Azeraijan was one of the first countries to take advantage of the situation and substitute Western exports. He reminded about the increase of exports to Moscow, Omsk and Sverdlovsk.
