Uzbekistan to create 300 hectares of orchards and vineyards in 2023 alone

Sherzod Mirkomilov, deputy director of the International Center for Strategic Development and Research in the Food and Agriculture Sector announced that around 250-300 hectares of orchards and vineyards would be established across the country in 2023.

Starting from April 15, 2023, the state unitary enterprise "Agroservis operator" under the Agency for Services will introduce a new funding system in Agriculture at the expense of the funds attracted from international financial institutions.

The projects in the field of storage, processing, creation of logistics facilities for fruits and vegetables, and procurement of cultivated products and equipment will be delivered through the unified electronic system of the Ministry of Agriculture.

"Agroservis operator" will build intensive orchards and vineyards, agro logistics facilities and technological lines (modern greenhouses, laboratories, small agro-logistics centers, processing facilities), lines in the food industry at the expense of these funds, and hand them over to entrepreneurs on a lease basis. In this case, the lease payment is made on the condition that 10% is paid in advance, 10% is the share of the initiators, and 80% is paid in instalments over 10 years.

Funds:

• allocated in national currency at a rate of 14 per cent. In this case, expenses incurred due to fluctuations in the exchange rate of the Uzbek soum against the US dollar are covered by the republican budget of the Republic of Uzbekistan;
• is presented with the addition of one percentage point to the interest rate involved in foreign currency.

The Ministry will direct 130 million US dollars attracted within the framework of the "Modernization of Agriculture" project of the World Bank to finance these projects. Projects financed through this system are implemented without the participation of commercial banks and collateral is not required.

The main areas for the harvest of 2023 are 3.2 million hectares;

• repeated areas of 783 thousand hectares;
• 140,000 hectares between garden and vineyard rows;
• field edges 34.6 thousand hectares;
• 373 thousand hectares of dry land.