Azerbaijan to export honey to Europe under Karabakh brand

Karabakh honey may make up 30% of Azerbaijan's total honey output in the future, Badraddin Hasratov, chairman of the board of the Azerbaijan Beekeepers Association, told Report.

According to Hasratov, relocating bee families to Kalbajar is underway.

"More than 20,000 bee families are planned to be relocated to Kalbajar and Lachin districts. Last year, 2,000 bee families were relocated. There are already applications to relocate bee families to Khojavand; there are permits as well. The Azerbaijan Mine Action Agency (ANAMA) is training beekeepers who will move to these areas. After that, beekeepers will be allowed to move to the area," he said.

Hasratov said that large numbers of beekeeping farms are being relocated to the liberated districts.

He noted that honey sales under the Karabakh brand have already started in the country's markets: "The company has already started working with the public legal entity ABAD."

Hasratov stressed that before the liberation of Azerbaijan's lands, Armenians supplied honey produced in these territories under the name "Kalbajar" to Europe: "If we become more active, we can remove Armenians from the world market. However, special permits are required to export beekeeping products to EU countries. At present, we are not able to export food of animal origin. The Food Safety Agency is working in this direction and wants to get permission to export honey to EU countries. A positive response has already been given. Experts from EU countries will visit Azerbaijan. After that, export of honey to EU countries will be allowed."

According to him, 7,000 tons of honey were filtered in Azerbaijan last year: "This year we expect more honey filtration, our target is 10,000 tons. In general, we expect an increase in production. "

More than 28,000 bee families in the Kalbajar district have been registered in the Electronic Agricultural Information System. Most of these bee families will be relocated to Kalbajar pastures. More than 500 farmers have already registered on the electronic portal of the Ministry of Agriculture to take beekeeping farms to pastures. The registration process ended on April 30.