New styles of cotton being launched to native fields might assist remedy some farmers’ best grievance – that costs for his or her uncooked supplies are so low, sapping their incentive to continue to grow.
The subsequent step to make the cotton business extra viable, specialists 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’re not producing one thing,” mentioned Mr Toghrul Valiyev, an unbiased economist based mostly in Baku.
“We’ve sources, 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 completely built-in cotton and textile enterprise, working with 8,000 cotton farmers.
Its chairman, John Younger Simpson – additionally the managing associate of Bluegrass Companions, an agribusiness funding and advisory agency based mostly in Singapore – says sustainability must be baked into your entire manufacturing chain for cotton to stay viable.
He mentioned there are “large low-hanging fruits in agriculture in Azerbaijan” because of the gradual uptake of mechanisation within the provide chain. He sees huge alternatives to be extra environment friendly and innovate to enhance yields and worth.