Green Marketing in Agricultural Production in Azerbaijan

This review article examines the evolving interaction of green marketing issues and the ‎agricultural sector of Azerbaijan, which attempts to modernize its agricultural sector, ‎including agri-food systems, but with compliance to global standards of sustainability. This ‎paper presents a systematic review of scholarly articles, policy reports, and cases in order to ‎explore the reality of the green marketing situation in Azerbaijani agriculture and reveal the ‎issues of barriers, enablers, and gaps. It is grounded on applicable theoretical frameworks such ‎as stakeholder theory, environmental and consumer behaviour models. This review reveals ‎that inadequate institutional infrastructure, non-existence of consumer awareness and the lack ‎of eco-certification of schemes are major constraints whereas policy interest, digitalization ‎and export potential are strategic opportunities. Comparative perspective places Azerbaijan in ‎the context of the global marketing environment of the green and points out major ‎incompatibilities as well as the areas of convergence. This paper presents recommendations on ‎the policies such as development of national eco-labelling program, inclusion of the green ‎marketing in the agricultural policies, and more competent stakeholder education and capacity ‎building. This review also adds to body of knowledge on how to achieve sustainable ‎development in post-Soviet regions and provides a pragmatic information that can be useful ‎to the practitioners and policymakers who want to make the agri-food sector in Azerbaijan ‎more competitive and ecologically sound‎.