Economic evaluation of sturgeon fish farming in Azerbaijan

Sturgeon fish, whose meat and caviar are very popular due to its high nutritional value, is considered as a species whose natural hunting areas have decreased, which is endangered, and whose breeding area is limited. Azerbaijan has become one of the important countries with the sturgeon farming that started especially after 2016. It is to evaluate the sturgeon meat and caviar obtained through aquaculture in Azerbaijan economically and to estimate the marketing effectiveness by revealing the value chain maps of these products. The surveys conducted with the managers and representatives of 4 enterprises engaged in sturgeon breeding under license in Azerbaijan; In addition, it was obtained by the snowball sampling method and the questionnaires applied to the same number of actors in the value chain involved in the delivery of the products of the enterprises to the consumer. Social and economic analysis of enterprises engaged in sturgeon fish farming was carried out. Value chain analysis was made by determining the value chain map. The network efficiency of the value chain was estimated by the network DEA model. The research findings showed that the businesses were operating with a capital of $2.7 million and earned a net income of $1.1 million. It has been determined that although the producers make the highest contribution to the value chains of sturgeon products, their share of the value is low and it has negative values from fish meat. It has been determined that there is a difference between network activities in terms of both product type and market type, and the network efficiency level of foreign market value chains is higher than the domestic market. The holistic implementation of the training program, which focuses on the fair distribution of shares in the value chains of sturgeon products, with the cooperation of all actors along the chain, can contribute positively to increasing both the network efficiency and the marketing efficiency of the actors at all stages of the chains.