New forms of cotton being launched to native fields may assist clear up some farmers’ best grievance – that costs for his or her uncooked supplies are so low, sapping their incentive to continue to grow.
The following step to make the cotton trade extra viable, consultants say, is so as to add worth domestically. In 2022, 99 per cent of Azerbaijan’s cotton was exported as a uncooked product.
“Okay, we’re producing cotton now, greater than at first of the 2000s, but it surely’s the identical scenario as oil. We’re exporting solely cotton. We aren’t producing one thing,” mentioned Mr Toghrul Valiyev, an unbiased economist based mostly in Baku.
“Now we have assets, uncooked supplies, and I do not know why we’re not making investments to do one thing with them,” he mentioned.
One exception is GP Cotton Holdings, a totally built-in cotton and textile enterprise, working with 8,000 cotton farmers.
Its chairman, John Younger Simpson – additionally the managing companion of Bluegrass Companions, an agribusiness funding and advisory agency based mostly in Singapore – says sustainability must be baked into the whole manufacturing chain for cotton to stay viable.
He mentioned there are “large low-hanging fruits in agriculture in Azerbaijan” as a result of gradual uptake of mechanisation within the provide chain. He sees massive alternatives to be extra environment friendly and innovate to enhance yields and worth.