On February 28, Vice President of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vladimir Padalko spoke at the round table “Modern features of foreign trade operations of exporters of the North Caucasus Federal District of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan.”
The event took place at the initiative of the Russian Chamber as part of the program of the 12th Russian-Azerbaijani Interregional Forum at the Minvody EXPO exhibition center.
The speech of Mr. Padalko was devoted to the practical content of bilateral trade between Russia and Azerbaijan.
According to him, in 2023 the Russian Federation topped the ranking of countries supplying goods to Azerbaijan. Deliveries of Russian products to Azerbaijan for 2022-2023. increased by 15.6% to $3.1 billion. As a result, Russian goods accounted for more than 18% of the republic’s total imports. The structure of Russian exports to Azerbaijan is mainly formed by grains, wood products, ferrous metals, food products, paper and cardboard, as well as equipment and vehicles, fuel and petroleum products. The leaders in export supplies to the republic in 2023 were enterprises from Moscow, Stavropol Territory, Moscow and Nizhny Novgorod regions.
Analyzing the prospects for bilateral trade, Vladimir Padalko said that Russia is the main importer of non-oil (including fruits and vegetables) products from Azerbaijan: our country accounts for 33% of this type of export. In 2023, Azerbaijan's non-oil exports increased by 9.8% compared to last year and amounted to $3.3 billion. This is a record figure in the entire history of observations. Given that the Azerbaijani economy faces the challenge of increasing non-oil production and exports, and Russia is the main market for non-oil goods, it is expected that the countries' trade turnover, in particular the export of Azerbaijani goods to Russia, will continue to grow.
Among the successful projects already implemented are the activities of Agroexpress, improved transport and logistics infrastructure, new tourist routes, cooperation projects through KAMAZ and Sollers.
The round table participants also discussed the prospects for economic interaction between the Stavropol Territory and the regions of the Republic of Azerbaijan, banking support for foreign trade transactions and transport and logistics issues, as well as humanitarian ties and the successes of economic diplomacy.
The moderators of the round table were Maria Suvorovskaya, honorary representative of the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Azerbaijan and Yusif Abdullayev, executive director of the Export and Investment Promotion Agency of the Republic of Azerbaijan - AZPROMO.
On the same day, entrepreneurs and leaders of Russian chambers took part in a business session and plenary session of the forum.
The Chamber delegation, the main part of which was made up of entrepreneurs from the Stavropol Territory - 70 people, testifies to significant interest in developing cooperation with Azerbaijan.
By Olga Stasyun,
Department of External Relations
