In January-April this year, 3,924.4 tons of tea were produced in Azerbaijan, according to the State Statistics Committee. Compared to the same period last year, production increased by 542.8 tons or 16.1 percent. In January-April last year, 3,381.6 tons of tea were produced. The growth of our tea production is a positive trend.
What are our future prospects in this field?
“Caspian” The newspaper sought an answer to this question in its next article.
“We only have 1,000 tons of tea production”
According to the director of the Agricultural Research Centre, Firdovsi Fikretzade, the growth is related to our processing industry:
“The figures given are imported products. Because we only have 1,000 tons of tea production in the country. What is mentioned in the statistics is the processing industry. This is not related to local production. We import dry tea. We import 14-15 thousand tons of tea. We export 14-15 thousand tons of tea and the rest is to meet our needs.”
It had a positive effect on productivity.
Farman Abdullayev, head of the Lankaran Tea Section of the Scientific Research Institute of Fruit and Tea Growing, said that the increase in tea production can be due to several factors:
“One of them is the failure of the river fields. Because new plantations have been established, the fields have been planted and have now started to produce. For example, the harvest in the plantations established 4 or 5 years ago is developing slowly. “It is raining and it also helped to keep the crop more natural. The higher the relative humidity (between 75 and 80), the better it is for tea.”
“12,000 manats in grants have been allocated”
According to F. Abdullayev, the care of tea cultivation is increasing every day:
“The state has already allocated 12,000 manats as a subsidy for each hectare of newly planted tea plantations. This has aroused farmers’ interest in this field. The allocation of subsidies will have a positive effect on increasing productivity and establishing new plantations.”
Difficulty created by large factories
The expert noted that some work is needed to further increase production in this area:
“It is necessary to unite small farms into an association, to create factories with low production capacity with private or state support. There are factories that do not work alone and do not receive tea from abroad. The factories we have are from the Soviet era. They are large factories and small farms cannot deliver tea whenever they want. But if there are small factories, they can process 100 kilograms of tea. The price is whatever the companies want. There are several small factories, but they are also private. They only produce their own tea.”
Not all crops mature at the same time
According to the expert, there are many points that undermine the quality of our tea:
“When you work with large factories, you have to wait for the full harvest. Tea is a product that must be produced within a maximum of 10 to 20 days. When green tea is harvested, it has to be delivered to the factory, because it spoils. If you leave it, you have to take into account that not all the products ripen at the same time. It is possible that the harvest is early in one area and late in another, and the quality of the tea is already reduced. “These are small factories with a daily processing capacity of 200 to 250 kilograms, which will give a great boost to the development of tea cultivation.”
The director also spoke of the difficulties faced by farmers in terms of payment:
“Farmers have to sell their products much cheaper. Factories accept 1 kilogram of premium tea for 1.5 manat. In the next harvests the price will be 1 manat for 30 kopecks. The current purchase price does not benefit farmers. If a farmer has one hectare of tea plantation, he can cover his annual demand with this amount – he does not know. When the entrepreneur transports the product to the factory on his own, the cost increases even more.”
Useful areas are no longer planted
F. Abdullayev said that there is quality tea in Azerbaijan, but there are no conditions.
“In our country there are very high quality rivers. We have mountainous areas where high quality damya tea grows. There is no need for fertilizers or irrigation. Nature itself creates all the conditions for its cultivation. But it is not possible to offer.”
According to F. Abdullayev, a state program should be prepared for the development of tea growing:
“Within the framework of this programme, both the transportation of the product and the increase in the price of processing and the construction of small factories should be carried out. All this should be done legally. Farmers should be given the opportunity to set up a factory on preferential terms. “Building a factory for everyone is something that is bought blindly and is expensive. But if the state develops a programme, it will have better results.”
