The Expertise Center "Traditional Food“ was created at the base of Azerbaijan State Agrarian University in cooperation with companies Zire sud LLC and Atena LLC.
As part of the project, the necessary equipment was purchased for the center, which is used for teaching students and postgraduates, for conducting the necessary scientific research, as well as for the implementation of the pilot project.
On the basis of the Expertise Center, trainings were held on the following topics:
1. Value Chain vs. Supply Chain: What's the Difference?
2. Establishment of the cluster
3. Importance of value chain in the production of the traditional food products
Specialists of the center carry out active advisory activities because modern methods and unique equipment allow them to conduct analysis and research in the shortest possible time, providing significant assistance in detecting problems not only in milk and dairy products, but also in feed.
The center also often hosts meetings with farmers, young entrepreneurs and agricultural producers.
As part of the UniClaD project, the Expertise Center " Traditional food promotion" implements a Pilot Project “Traditional food promotion (especially motal cheese) “.
Staff of Hygiene and Food Security Department of Veterinarians Fatsulty of ADAU are involved in the Pilot Project.
Traditional food products are important for the sustainable development of agriculture, as well as micro, small and medium enterprises. Azerbaijan has great potential in agriculture and food. In order to increase sales, export and recognition of traditional food products, these products should be widely promoted at the national and international levels, a systematic marketing policy should be pursued, and marketing measures among producers should be strengthened.
At the same time, the application of quality assurance schemes and quality standards for traditional food products is important in terms of ensuring safety, selling the product more and at a higher price.
The introduction and promotion of traditional food products, especially motal cheese will contribute to increasing the production and sale of these products. In addition, the project will support the growth of incomes of local agribusinesses and farmers.
The trend towards healthy eating is gaining momentum not only among experts and researchers, but also among consumers every day. Traditional foods are once again gaining the attention of consumers in a market full of highly processed foods. Factors in the food market in Azerbaijan, such as the predominance of imports of non-traditional food products produced abroad and their promotion and the significant weakness of traditional local food production, have a negative impact on the provision of the population with traditional food products.
More traditional local and regional food products should be produced according to best practice, recognized production, post-harvest and processing standards so that clients can buy good local nutrition at affordable price.
The lack of awareness of the public about nutrition and healthy eating may also cause serious health problems in the society. One of the necessary steps to be taken to eliminate these cases is the organization of public awareness work.
In this sense, there is a need to train potential specialists in the field of traditional food, nutrition and healthy eating. Higher education institutions have an important responsibility for the training of such experts.
