AZE.US
REAL party chairman Natig Jafarli has questioned why Azerbaijanis who are reportedly able to build a flower business in Ecuador cannot do the same in Azerbaijan.
Citing official import data, Jafarli said Azerbaijan brought in 480,000 roses worth $652,000 in January alone. The average import cost came to 2.20 manats per flower. Most of the roses came from Ecuador, which supplied 366,000 roses worth $525,000, or about 2.40 manats per stem.
Kenya ranked second, with 45,000 roses imported for $56,000, putting the average cost at 1.70 manats each. Imports from the Netherlands rose fourfold from a year earlier, with Azerbaijan bringing in 6,300 roses worth $7,100 in January, or 1.91 manats per flower.
Jafarli said the issue is not only that these flowers are later sold on the domestic market at prices two or three times higher. He wrote that there are reports suggesting Azerbaijanis are involved in the flower business in Ecuador, where they have built plantations, production chains and packaging networks.
If that is true, he said, it raises a broader question: why people who can organize such a business on the other side of the world are unable to develop it in their own country.
In his view, if roses can be grown in Ecuador and delivered to Azerbaijan for 2.40 manats per stem including costs, then the same type of business should be viable domestically under the right conditions.
Jafarli framed this as a wider problem for the country’s business climate, arguing that Azerbaijan has capable people but lacks the conditions needed for them to build and profit from such ventures at home.