Food, technology, and geopolitics converge at Baku’s expanding agri-fair

As global supply chains remain vulnerable and climate change continues to challenge food systems, Azerbaijan is positioning itself not only as a regional agricultural player but increasingly as a platform for technological innovation and international cooperation in the sector.

On May 13, President Ilham Aliyev inaugurated the 30th InterFood Azerbaijan and 18th Caspian Agro exhibitions at the Baku Expo Center — the largest agricultural and food industry events in the Caspian region. With more than 450 companies from 31 countries taking part and the entire expo center occupied, the scale of the events indicates Azerbaijan’s growing ambition to place agriculture at the heart of its economic diversification strategy.

But this year’s exhibitions offered more than a showcase of machinery, food products, and fertilizers. They were a mirror to a broader transformation: one that blends tradition with digitization, and soft diplomacy with hard economics.

The geographic spread of the participants reads like a map of Azerbaijan’s evolving partnerships. Countries such as Germany, Italy, Belarus, South Korea, and Georgia brought national pavilions, while new entrants like Egypt debuted this year. Some, notably Italy and Georgia, have participated for over a decade, reflecting long-standing ties. Others, like South Korea, are bringing cutting-edge technologies, including artificial intelligence-powered livestock systems and smart horticulture tools.

President Aliyev’s visit to the Italian, Georgian, and South Korean pavilions served as subtle diplomatic gestures, underlining the strategic weight Azerbaijan now places on agri-diplomacy, the use of agricultural cooperation to deepen bilateral ties.

It’s a telling shift for a country long known more for its oil than its orchards.

At the heart of this transformation is the government’s embrace of artificial intelligence in agriculture — a priority now formally recognized by the Ministry of Agriculture and prominently featured at this year’s exhibition. With a forward-looking theme dubbed AI in Agriculture for 2025, the Ministry presented several projects that aim to create synergies between Azerbaijani university students specializing in AI and the country’s growing network of agro-parks.

While the details remain in early stages, the intention is clear: to future-proof the sector, ensure data-driven productivity, and insulate food systems from environmental volatility and labor shortages.

The government’s push is part of a broader effort to redefine Azerbaijan’s agricultural identity, evolving from a supplier of raw goods into a smart agriculture innovator. This year’s “Smart Agro” section of the exhibition featured not only robotics and drones but also solutions for e-agriculture and green farming practices.

The InterFood and Caspian Agro exhibitions are not isolated annual showcases. Over 30 years, InterFood alone has hosted more than 3,000 companies and 150,000 visitors. More importantly, they serve as economic infrastructure for a nation looking to reduce its dependence on hydrocarbons by building robust export sectors in food and agritech.

This is where brand diplomacy comes in. “Made in Azerbaijan,” the country’s flagship promotional campaign, was again on prominent display, adorning locally-produced goods ranging from packaged foods to machinery. It is a branding effort not just for commercial visibility, but for national soft power — a declaration that Azerbaijan is capable of producing competitively for international markets.

Meanwhile, the Small and Medium Business Development Agency, along with FAO and other international institutions, continues to use the exhibitions as platforms to promote Azerbaijani SMEs and facilitate knowledge exchange. These institutional players offer a necessary counterweight to state-led development, helping to embed market adaptability and international best practices into the sector.

Azerbaijan’s agricultural strategy is increasingly regional in scope. With companies from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, and Türkiye participating — and neighboring Georgia showcasing its tenth pavilion — Baku is leveraging its geographic and logistical position to act as a corridor for Eurasian agricultural trade.

The exhibitions are becoming not just meeting grounds for producers and consumers, but crossroads of regulation, innovation, and logistics. Azerbaijan’s ambitions for “green” technologies and sustainable farming find resonance in the shared challenges of desertification, water scarcity, and post-pandemic food insecurity that affect much of Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

In recognition of the growing importance and institutional complexity of these events, officials announced that starting in 2026, Caspian Agro and InterFood Azerbaijan will be rebranded under a new umbrella: AgriWeek. This signals not only a scaling-up of the event’s format, but its transformation into a more permanent fixture in Azerbaijan’s economic diplomacy calendar.

Rebranding also offers a chance to expand the event’s scope, integrating more research institutions, regional policy forums, and digital innovation labs. It aligns well with the Ministry of Agriculture’s AI roadmap and with broader global trends toward smart agriculture summits.

President Aliyev’s tour of the outdoor machinery displays may appear routine, but it reflects a carefully cultivated narrative: that Azerbaijan is not just adapting to global changes but aiming to shape the discourse on food security and innovation.

If successful, this strategy could allow the country to reposition itself far beyond its traditional energy exporter role, literally as a regional convenor, technological adopter, and agricultural exporter in a time of global uncertainty.

In a world increasingly defined by what nations can grow, sustain, and innovate, Azerbaijan appears to be planting the right seeds, and it is doing so in full view of the world.