Minister: Azerbaijan's meat production growth doesn't yet cover growing consumption

Over the past five years, Azerbaijan has seen a decline in livestock numbers, Minister of Agriculture Majnun Mammadov said at a meeting on agricultural issues chaired by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, Report informs.

He noted that despite this, the country is seeing an increase in meat production and per capita consumption: "Unfortunately, growing meat production cannot keep up with increasing consumption, which is why meat imports have increased in recent years. I would like to point out that productivity is one of the main challenges facing the industry. Currently, livestock productivity is below the desired level. At the same time, the share of purebred cattle in the total herd is only 2.5%. This, unfortunately, prevents us from significantly increasing productivity."

He believes that extensive farms in both crop and livestock production have already completely exhausted their development potential: "Over the past five years, the main growth has been driven by intensive farms. However, their number in Azerbaijan is currently small, and we must increase it."

"Regarding intensification, I note: while a local cow produces an average of 1,800 liters of milk per year on family farms, on intensive farms, productivity per head reaches 7,500 liters, and in some, it reaches 10,000-12,000 liters. We see a similar pattern of superiority of intensive farms in beef production," the minister said.