Online video conference was held with producers of products of wine and winemaking in the Ministry of Agriculture

Online video conference with representatives of production companies on the current state of production of wine and winemaking products in the Ministry of Agriculture. Minister of Agriculture Inam Karimov, representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Economy, heads of companies engaged in the production of wine and winemaking products, farmers were attended in the meeting held on September 12.

Minister Inam Karimov noted that the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr. Ilham Aliyev defined measures to ensure food security. In accordance with this, the Ministry of Agriculture implements constant measures for the development of the agricultural sector. The activities of the agricultural sector are built in accordance with existing challenges, providing citizens with high-quality and affordable food products. One of the main goals of the Ministry is to increase the export potential of agricultural products, the state, like many industries, supports the development of viticulture through a subsidiary mechanism.

At the meeting, it was emphasized that ensuring viticulture is one of the important issues. The participants were informed that the Scientific Research Institute of Viticulture and Winemaking has built a production capacity of 500 thousand phylloxers per year. In order to provide the greenhouse complex with basements and suspended planting material, a garden of suspended material was laid on an area of 20 hectares and a garden of philoxerotic basement material on an area of 10 hectares. The construction of this facility will play a key role in meeting the demand for disease-resistant and productive breeds in viticulture.

The participants of the meeting voiced their proposals for expanding production and agricultural processing in the context of the pandemic. The speakers noted that due to the pandemic, there is a decrease in demand for wine products in Azerbaijan and abroad, and therefore reserves are being created in the warehouses of wine enterprises. It was noted that storing wine products in warehouses does not allow enterprises to buy products in the same volume and produce wine. For this reason, the demand for technical and other (table) grapes from processing enterprises is weakened in Azerbaijan.

During the speeches, proposals were made to harmonize national regulatory and technical documents for the development of winemaking with international standards, to develop wine tourism within the framework of agro ecotourism projects, and to create processing enterprises for the production of dry grapes. The participants agreed to expand ties between grape producers and companies that produce wine and wine products.

As a result of the meeting, legal entities and individuals involved in the production of wine and winemaking products were recommended to prepare and submit proposals to the Ministry on the development of this sphere, on ways out of existing difficulties.

It was noted that in the coming days, the country will begin mass of grape harvest. Currently, there are 16.1 thousand hectares of vineyards in the Republic. 10580,6 hectares of vineyards are table and 5506,3 hectares of technical grape varieties. On 14521.8 hectares of vineyards that produce bars, 201.7 thousand tons of products were collected last year, which is 34.2 thousand tons more than in the same period of 2018. The average yield of grapes increased from 92.8 per quintal to 104,8 quintal. Currently, the harvest in the gardens continues, and the average yield is significantly higher compared to the corresponding period last year. To date, 27.5 thousand tons of grapes have been harvested on the area of 14521.8 hectares of vineyards.