According to EastFruit analysts Uzbekistan profited from the tight onion supply situation in Europe and Middle East in a big way. After lifting export restrictions from March 15, 2023 and through the end of May 2023 the country has already exported more than 157 thousand tons of onions, which is a new record for such a short period of time. Total export revenue from onion exports during these 2.5 months reached US $29.2 million.
Even though onion exports were banned until mid-March, cumulative shipments in 2023 are already 33% higher than in 2022. The export geography has also widened significantly. While a year ago it onions were mostly shipped to six countries of the same region and Ukraine, in 2023 Uzbek onions were already sold to 18 countries.
Five countries of the EU have already imported onions from Uzbekistan: Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Czech Republic. In Eastern Europe significant volumes of Uzbek onions were delivered to Ukraine, Moldova, and Georgia. Among importers were also Pakistan and Iraq, which is rather unusual.
The full list of countries-importers with volumes of onion shipments from Uzbekistan is below:
- Kazakhstan – 92.300 tons (58.8% of total exports);
- Russia – 47.300 tons (30.2%);
- Kyrgyzstan – 7.100 tons (4.5%);
- Belarus – 3.100 tons (2.0%);
- Latvia – 1.900 tons (1.2%);
- Afghanistan – 1.600 tons (1.0%);
- Ukraine – 1.100 tons (0.7%);
- Poland – 952 tons (0.6%);
- Tajikistan – 473 tons (0.3%);
- Turkmenistan – 331 tons (0.2%);
- Moldova – 255 tons (0.2%);
- Lithuania – 191 tons (0.1%);
- Georgia – 130 tons (0.1%);
- Estonia – 111 tons (0.1%);
- Pakistan – 51 tons;
- Iraq – 47 tons;
- Czech Republic – 20 tons;
- Mongolia – 16 tons.
For more information: east-fruit.com