Azerbaijan is one of the largest pomegranate producers in the world, exporting its pomegranates to a number of countries. One of the country’s pomegranate-producing regions, Bilasuvar, is exporting pomegranates to Russia this year.
This season, the region will export the second batch of pomegranates to Russia. There is a demand for Azerbaijani pomegranates in Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major cities that have ordered thousands of tons of the Azerbaijani pomegranate. Russian buyers are particularly fond of Veles and Gulovsha pomegranate varieties.
In 2018, Bilasuvar farmers harvested over 800 tons of pomegranates, of which 50 percent were sold to foreign markets under the Azerbaijani brand.
The area of pomegranate gardens is expected to reach 28,000 hectares in 2020. In 2018, Azerbaijan produced 155,000 tons of pomegranates, of which 9,900 tons were exported; total revenue from pomegranates amounted to $12.3 million.
There are 15 enterprises producing pomegranate products in Azerbaijan. In recent years, the government took a number of steps to promote pomegranate industry such as subsidization of this industry, organization of pomegranate festivals. The use of pomegranate juice, jam, seeds, and peel as raw material in the pharmaceutical industry has expanded this fruit's market as well.
Source: azernews.az
