Uzbekistan increased the volume of imports of fruits and nuts in 2022, while remaining a net exporter of these products. The volume of fruit imports into the country in the first 10 months of 2022 reached a record $90 million, which is 2.1 times higher than imports for the same period in 2021 and almost 3 times higher than imports in January-October 2020 according to east-fruit.com
“One of the reasons for the sharp increase in imports was the failure of the apple harvest in 2021 and the sharp increase in apple prices in winter 2021-2022. Also the dynamically growing population of the country and the continued growth of the economy of Uzbekistan,” says Andriy Yarmak.
As for the indicators of trade in fruits and nuts, exports in the first 10 months of 2022 exceeded imports by 5.6 times. Most of all (almost half) fruit imports accounted for bananas. Imports of bananas to Uzbekistan increased by 2.2 times in value and by 90% in physical terms over the year and reached 11 200 tonnes per month.
Apple imports to Uzbekistan grew the most sharply – 4.6 times in value and 5.8 times in physical terms. Importers spent $10.6 million on apples, importing 25 300 tonnes of them in 10 months. Mandarins and oranges are third and fourth in the ranking of the most imported fruits of Uzbekistan respectively, and their imports doubled.
During this period, imports of pears to Uzbekistan increased by 65%, kiwi imports increased by 2.2 times, lemon imports increased by 5 times, and pineapple imports increased by 80%. Almost all fruit exotics showed huge dynamics of import growth.