Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s major natural gas and oil producer, is interested in increasing the import of goods from Azerbaijan.

The county is mainly interested in purchasing various agricultural products, including potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, nuts, apples, pears, quinces, apricots, cherries, cherries and others, according to materials provided by the National Economy Ministry of Kazakhstan to the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO)

The list also includes chocolate, sugar, tobacco raw materials, wine, sunflower oil, tea, animal and vegetable fats and acyclic alcohol. Kazakhstan is also interested in importing various construction materials from Azerbaijan such as cement, steel structures from ferrous metals, pipes and packaging bags.

Azerbaijan can meet demand of the Kazakh market and almost completely replace potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers and gherkins, animal and vegetable fats and edible oils imported from other countries, according to the Kazakh Ministry.

Kazakhstan imports potatoes on an average of $10.6 million per year, while imports of potatoes from Azerbaijan can reach $ 8.3 million.

Kazakhstan imports tomatoes for $56.6 million. Azerbaijan can meet the country's needs in this product by 87.5 percent. For cucumbers and gherkins, these figures will be $10.4 million and 78.8 percent respectively, and for animal and vegetable fats and edible oils $5.9 million and 76.1 percent, accordingly.

Today, the volume of supplies from Azerbaijan to Kazakhstan for each of these goods is about $100,000, according to the Ministry's data.

The trade turnover with Kazakhstan in January-June of 2017 amounted to $74.5 million, of which $ 60.7 million accounted for imports from Kazakhstan.

Azerbaijan is keen to diversify the national economy and reduce its dependence on petrodollars. This is seen at the safest way to minimize the impact of the global crisis to the nation.

The most important component of the government strategy on diversification of the Azerbaijani economy is designated to optimizing the structure of non-oil exports, in particular, by increasing the volume and range of agricultural products, and improving its competitiveness on foreign markets.

Azerbaijan's agricultural sector plays an important role in providing the 9.8-million population's food security in a best way and increasing the country's export potential.

In 2017, the share of the non-oil sector of Azerbaijan’s GDP will grow 2.5 percent and amount to 67.9 percent, according to official forecasts. The share of the non-oil exports in Azerbaijan’s GDP is projected to grow 8.4 percent.

--

Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz