Republican Meeting was held on the theme of “Upcoming challenges of tobacco-growing” at Ministry of Agriculture

On November 26, the Ministry of Agriculture held a meeting on “Problems in the Tobacco Growing”. The meeting was chaired by Minister Inam Karimov, Deputy Minister of Economy Sahib Mammadov, Director of the Department of Expertise and Analysis of Economics of the Ministry of Taxes Azer Suleymanov, representatives of tobacco processing and manufacturing enterprises, farmers engaged in tobacco production.

Opening the meeting, Minister of Agriculture Inam Karimov said that the development of the agricultural sector was declared as one of the priority field by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr. Ilham Aliyev. The Minister noted that the pace of development of the agricultural sector continues as a result of implementation measures: “The ongoing agricultural reforms provide for the further development of agriculture. The state takes systematic measures to develop the agricultural sector, including tobacco and subsidies for the development of this sector. The Minister noted that the tobacco growing in Azerbaijan has a rich history and potential. he said. The state program for the development of the tobacco growing in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2017–2021 is aimed at reaching 6,000 hectares of arable land by 2021 with a yield of 20 centners per hectare. We have all the conditions and opportunities to achieve this goal. One of the main incentives for this is government subsidies. The new subsidy rules will focus more on smoking”.

In his speech, the Minister touched upon a set of implementation measures to develop tobacco in Azerbaijan. He emphasized the importance of properly building a value chain between farmers, start-ups and manufacturing companies and informed participants about preparations for tobacco production and upcoming tasks, tobacco development, its goals and perspectives. The meeting was followed by Deputy Minister of Economy Sahib Mammadov, Director of the Department of Expertise and Analysis of Economics of the Ministry of Taxes Azer Suleymanov, Director of the Agricultural Industry Department of the Azerbaijan Industrial Corporation, members of the Council of Tobacco Manufacturers, tobacco producers and manufacturers. They talked about the current situation in tobacco production in the country and shared their views on tobacco development.

The meeting discussed the plan of tobacco products of the Council of Tobacco Manufacturers for 2020, exchanged views on the development of smoking and upcoming challenges, as well as proposals from farmers. At the end of the discussion, it was stated that meetings in this format would be continued and farmers would be informed about the work being done to address the issues raised.