Agriculture provides commercial opportunities for Dutch companies in Azerbaijan: ministry (Exclusive)

Agriculture stands out as the sector with the biggest potential: it does not only provides commercial opportunities for Dutch companies, but also will contribute to strengthening the agricultural sector in Azerbaijan, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Trend.

"Economic and trade corporation have always been an important aspect of our relation. As we have good expertise in such areas as: developing a sustainable agricultural sector, water management, shipbuilding, port engineering and management, environmental issues, petrochemicals, logistics, education, dairy products and retail, there were many commercial activities in these areas during the past decade. Given both the priority given to it by Azerbaijan, in the endeavours to diversify its economy, and the expertise of the Netherlands in this field, agriculture stands out as the sector with the biggest potential: it does not only provides commercial opportunities for Dutch companies, but also will contribute to strengthening the agricultural sector in Azerbaijan," said the ministry.

Moreover, the Dutch Foreign Ministry announced that in the autumn the country plans to organize an agricultural seminar in Baku, addressing the issue of "Sustainable Agriculture for producing Healthy Food".

"In this seminar, we aim to bring together companies, ministries and institutes and universities and educational organizations of both our countries, as our experience shows that sustainable solution for agricultural challenges can only be found if these three sectors work closely together," said the ministry.

As far as trade is concerned, the Dutch MFA said that greenhouse technology, seeds, dairy products and poultry and meat have the highest potential.

"As transfer of knowledge and building experience are important, cooperation between Wageningen agricultural university and research institute and ADA University and the Azerbaijani ministry of agriculture is an important feature of the relations in this sector. Through efforts by our Ministry, the organization RVO (which provides support for Dutch companies exporting abroad) and our embassy in Baku, we are actively supporting international trade and investment. Individual companies are assisted in finding the appropriate counterparts and relevant networks in Azerbaijan, activities such as trade missions and fairs are organised and contacts between governmental institutions are promoted, particularly between the ministries of Agriculture in both the Netherlands and Azerbaijan. Since 2016, we have participated each year with a Dutch pavilion in Caspian Agro, cumulating in more than 20 Dutch companies participating this year," said the ministry.