With its 456,000 tons of potatoes imported in the last 11 months, Uzbekistan has already set a new record of spud acquisitions and may become one of the five largest potato importers in the world by the end of 2021.
Last year, the total imports of potatoes numbered 421,000 tons, making the imports of potatoes into the country more than double in just three years.
The latest EastFruit analysis shows that the total imports of cultivars to Uzbekistan are most likely to outstrip 500,000 tons for the first time by the end of this year. Consequently, ‘with high probability, Uzbekistan will be the fifth among the largest potato importing countries, after Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy.
The above-mentioned media source said that when the first three leaders import a large part of potatoes for processing needs and export the finished product – frozen fries and other potato products, Uzbekistan buys potatoes for fresh consumption within the country.
“Accordingly, in terms of the volume of net imports, Uzbekistan is likely to be even the first in the world, surpassing Italy, which exports early potatoes,” the analysts wrote in their report.
In the country, wholesale prices for potatoes have now stabilized at a level close to UZS5,000/kg (USD0.46/kg). Furthermore, they are already 43% higher than last year at the same time, and twice as high as in 2019.
