Deputy Minister: Azerbaijani tea producers require long-term preferential loans

The issuance of long-term (15 years) preferential loans to entrepreneurs engaged in tea-growing will have a positive impact on the development of Azerbaijan’s agricultural sector, Deputy Agriculture Minister Bahram Aliyev stated in his article published in the official press on Thursday.

According to the Azerbaijani State Statistics Committee, 338.1 tons of green tea leaves have been collected since the beginning of the harvest season. The figure is less by 23.1 tons compared to the same period of 2010.

However, agricultural production in Azerbaijan increased by 10.2 percent, including crop production - by 15.1 percent, in the first seven months of 2011 compared to the same period of 2010.

"Despite this progress, Azerbaijan's crop sphere should resolve some problems," Aliyev said.

With an increase in the volume of agricultural production, the country faces additional problems with the storage, sale and even export of the product.

"There is a loss of fruit and vegetables in large quantities. Bases for storage and sale of agricultural products are being created in the region since 2010 to solve this problem," Aliyev said.

He said more attention should be paid to issues of grading and packing, as well as investment ways must be determined to increase exports of fruits, vegetables and potatoes.

"Due to the fact that some land plots in the use of manufacturers were not reclaimed for many years, some of them become unusable," Aliyev said. To increase more efficient use of sown areas, the owners of small plots of land and small family farms appropriate to join in cooperation on a voluntary basis.

The Azerbaijani Parliament adopted a bill on ‘Agricultural cooperatives’ at the first reading in April. Deputy Chairman of Parliamentary Agrarian Policy Committee Eldar Guliyev said earlier that its is incorrect to equate agricultural cooperatives to collective farms, which existed during the Soviet period.

"The collective farms were organized by compulsion, stringent requirements were set before them and they were not based on private property. In contrast to the collective farms, cooperatives are voluntary and are based on an independent business. Farmer can pick up belongings and leave the cooperative at any time. The state co-operatives and its members have only tax liability," Guliyev said.

He said work is underway on improving the bill for its adoption at second reading, for what foreign experience is studied.

"Now in the country’s agrarian sector have 179 cooperatives. But this is insufficient for developing the agricultural system of Azerbaijan,’ Guliyev said.


/Trend/