15:48 - 20.05.2022

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May 20, Fineko/abc.az. The food crisis is intensifying in the world, especially the grain crisis. Many states store a significant amount of grain. We should also have grain reserves at the request of food security of about 1 million tons (at least 800,000 tons). But at the moment there is no information about how many stocks we have.

ABC.AZ reports, quoting expert Elchin Bayramli, who called on the Grain Fund to give specific explanations about the volume of its grain stocks: "The domestic production cannot meet half of the demand even under ideal circumstances. Moreover, the Grain Fund did not accept local wheat, explaining that with its poor quality. What will the Fund do now: will it accept this "low-quality" wheat or will we import grain from another planet? Will the importing monopoly be able to save the country now, will it be able to buy grain from some country? This is almost impossible. Global grain production is declining, and the expected drought and water crisis will worsen the situation. Major exporters have already stopped exporting.

This was to be expected after we left local production and began to rely on importers. The data disclosure evasion by the Grain Fund raises suspicions. According to my estimates, the maximum grain supply is 3 months, after harvesting grain, you can collect stocks for another 3 months. If there is a drought and a water crisis, then by the end of the year the situation will become more complicated. A rapid program should be launched in the agrarian sector, food supplies should be increased in all possible ways. In those areas where this is possible (for example, in cotton growing), it is necessary to switch to food cultivation. It is necessary to increase grain crops by at least 50%. To store other food products for the winter period, it is urgently necessary to create large refrigerated warehouses. Support for small and medium-sized farmers should be increased. Subsidies and benefits should be increased," Bayramli emphasized.