Azerbaijan sets new requirements for vegetable imports from Turkey

New regulations on import of Turkish goods to Azerbaijan

According to Turkish media, Azerbaijan returned 64 tons of fresh peppers imported from Turkey, citing the detection of pests in the batch. New regulations have also been introduced for the import of pepper, tomatoes, and eggplants to Azerbaijan from Turkey. Azerbaijani experts do not see any reasons how it could complicate the relations between the two countries.

• What do residents of Yerevan think about Armenian-Turkish negotiations?
• Turkey anticipates opening of borders with Armenia
• Op-ed: How does Turkey-Azerbaijan military alliance fit into Russia’s demands for NATO?

According to the Turkish newspaper Sözcü, for the first time in many years of economic relations between the two countries, Azerbaijan returned a batch of 64 tons of imported fresh pepper to Turkey, because dangerous pests were found in vegetables.

At the same time, Azerbaijan introduced additional conditions for the import of vegetables from Turkey, the report said. If previously, only goods from one truck of the entire batch were subjected to verification, then from now on the entire batch of vegetables will be checked. These conditions have been introduced by the Azerbaijani side for tomatoes, eggplants, and fresh peppers imported from Turkey.

It is interesting that the news appeared in the Turkish press on February 21, but so far official Baku has not reported this. On the website of the Azerbaijani State Agency for Food Safety (AQTA) no information on this subject could be found.

Expert commentary

According to economic observer Ali Ahmedov, some countries prohibit the import of goods from certain countries for political reasons. For example, Russia often does with this, the expert notes.

Pests in tomatoes or Russian leverage on Azerbaijan?

Russia has banned the import of apples and tomatoes from Azerbaijan to this country due to the identification of pests in products, but experts have a different opinion

“Your question about the ban on the import of Turkish vegetables to Azerbaijan took me by surprise. To be honest, I haven’t heard anything about it. AQTA did not inform about this.

But if such a fact takes place, then the matter is probably purely technical. 64 tons of fresh pepper is not such a big amount for economic relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan in order to detect pests. Azerbaijan must protect its consumers, no matter from which country the consignment of spoiled goods arrives.

I don’t see any politics here, because relations between Turkey and Azerbaijan are currently at a very high level”, Ahmadov told JAMnews.