The establishment of agricultural parks has an important role to play in increasing the production of export-oriented products and strengthening the export potential, along with accelerating the development of the agricultural sector.
At present, 51 agro-parks and large farms with a total project cost of 2.4 billion manats have been created on 239.3 thousand hectares of land in 32 regions of the country. Of these, 34 specialize in crop production, 14 in crop and livestock production, 1 in animal husbandry, and 2 in sorting-packaging, processing and logistics.
To date, 1.4 billion manats of private investment has been invested in agro-parks. Agro-parks, like other agricultural enterprises, enjoy tax incentives, subsidies, soft loans and leasing. In addition, the state takes other support measures. As a result, 26 out of 27 agro-parks that received investment documents were granted benefits in the amount of 43.9 million manats for the import of machinery, technological equipment and structures, and soft loans in the amount of 184.2 million manats were provided for the establishment or expansion of 25 agro-parks.
Agro-parks also has an important role to play in increasing employment rates. Currently, agro-parks totally provide up to 4,500 employees with permanent and more than 5,500 employees with seasonal jobs. In the future, it is planned to create up to 4,700 new jobs.
In the past period of 2022, the agro-parks produced 152.4 thousand tons of wheat, 71.4 thousand tons of barley, 115 thousand tons of corn, 13.7 thousand tons of alfalfa, 19 thousand tons of milk and 1.3 thousand tons of meat.
In 2018-2022, intensive fruit orchards with a total area of more than 8,291 hectares were planted in agro-parks, of which 819.2 tons of peaches, 225 tons of nectarines, 240 tons of apricots, 323 tons of cherries, etc. were harvested over the last period of 2022.
Note that the managing organization for agro-parks in the country is the Agency for the Development of Economic Zones of the Ministry of Economy. The Agency was established by the Presidential Decree dated January 22, 2021 to improve the management of industrial parks and districts, as well as agro-parks.
