According to EastFruit analysts, Uzbekistan sharply increased the imports of fresh apples in 2022. They rose by 2.5 times over the year and reached a record 26 700 tonnes.
Uzbek importers purchased the main volume of apples in 2022 from Iran – more than 15 700 tonnes. Thus, apple imports from Iran to Uzbekistan increased by 3.7 times over the year, although Iran itself sharply reduced the total volume of apple exports in 2022 due to a crop failure. The second in the ranking of apple suppliers to the Uzbek market is Poland, which accounted for 15% of all imports or 4 100 tonnes. By the way, deliveries from Poland to Uzbekistan increased most sharply – 41 times compared to 2021.
Despite the war launched by Russia and the logistics to Uzbekistan that have risen sharply in price, Ukraine has also hugely increased exports of its apples to Uzbekistan. They increased by 7.7 times and reached 2 200 tonnes. This allowed Ukraine to even get ahead of Moldova, which increased supplies by only 67% to 2 000 tonnes. As a result, Turkey was only fifth among major apple suppliers to the Uzbek market, and the volume of its apple supplies remained almost unchanged over the year – 1 100 tonnes.
A significant increase in the geography of apple imports to Uzbekistan in 2022 is noteworthy. In addition to the above-mentioned countries, wholesale volumes of fresh apples were also supplied by China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Lithuania, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Azerbaijan, France, Hungary, Latvia, and the Netherlands.
Uzbekistan imports the main volumes of apples in February, March, and April, after which imports sharply decrease as fruits and berries of a new harvest from the southern regions of the country become available at the local market.
For more information: east-fruit.com