Second U.S.-Azerbaijan agricultural forum to be held in Oklahoma

The inaugural Oklahoma-Azerbaijan Agricultural Forum will be held November 6-8 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The forum will bring together experts, private sector executives/representatives, agribusiness manufacturers, as well as government agricultural authorities from the state of Oklahoma and Azerbaijan to share best practices and explore partnership and investment opportunities in both economies.

It is the second forum of its kind bringing together agricultural producers and policymakers from the U.S. and Azerbaijan. A delegation of 14 Azerbaijani companies led by Azerbaijan’s Minister of Agriculture, Inam Karimov, and 33 American companies participated in the first such forum, which was held in Chicago in April. The Chicago forum created ties between Azerbaijan’s agricultural sector and farmers, agribusinesses and manufacturers in the U.S. state of Illinois.

The Oklahoma-Azerbaijan Forum will cover practices in farm management, regulation, and promotion across a wide range of crops and products, with a special focus on animal husbandry and livestock. Oklahoma is the number one producer of rye and second largest producer of beef in the United States. Agriculture makes up $7.1 billion of the state’s annual economy and agricultural exports bring the state $1.9 billion per year. The state of Oklahoma and the Republic of Azerbaijan have been cooperating within the U.S. State Partnership Program since 2003. The successful partnership between the Oklahoma National Guard and the Republic of Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Defense has created a solid basis for expanding this cooperation into the agricultural sector.

The Oklahoma-Azerbaijan Agricultural Forum is being co-organized by the United States-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce (USACC), the Oklahoma Department of Commerce, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission in Azerbaijan, in partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry; the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Azerbaijan; the U.S. Embassy in Azerbaijan; the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United States; and AmCham Azerbaijan.