Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

Uzbekistan intends to launch a green corridor for the export of agricultural products to the Baltic countries.

This will significantly reduce the time of transportation of perishable goods to the Baltic coast, as well as costs for transport and customs clearance. In addition, in the future, these products, for example, can be sent to the EU countries through the Latvian ports and transport hubs.

Uzbekistan is currently working out the issues of opening green corridors for fruits and vegetables with neighboring countries - Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Belarus. This issue has already been included in the state program ‘Year of support of active entrepreneurship, innovative ideas and technologies’.

Final proposals on this issue should be formed by the relevant ministries and departments until mid-2018.

Uzbekistan and Russia have already launched a green corridor for fruit and vegetable products, providing for a simplified procedure for its customs clearance. This made it possible to increase the export of domestic agricultural products to Russia by several times. Now, the republic intends to increase the annual volume of deliveries of fruit and vegetable products to Russia up to $1 billion.

The Uzbek side also entered into direct contracts with the largest Russian retail chains, such as X5 Retail Group, Magnet, Holiday, Maria Ra and others, for the supply of fresh and processed fruit and vegetable products.

To date, Russia and Kazakhstan remain the main markets for Uzbek fruit. Currently, Russia accounts for about 60 percent of total exports.

Agreements on the supply of fruit and vegetable products for 2018 and 2019 were previously signed with South Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, the U.S., Indonesia, Germany and other countries.

Uzbekzokovaktholding earlier announced its plans to expand the geography of exports to the countries of Southeast Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and North and Latin America.

The plans for 2018 also include creation of a network of logistics centers for further export, where the preparation, labeling and packaging of products will be carried out, introduction of advanced technologies in production and processing, and creation of a unified system for exporters of agricultural products.

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Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

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