Современные тенденции и вызовы плодоовощного сектора Узбекистана

Producing of fruit and vegetable products is one of the branches of Uzbekistan that have all the basic conditions for rapid growth. A significant part of agricultural regions of the country is suitable for the production fruit and vegetable products. The potential of the sector is quite high, and this is due not only to the availability of favorable climatic conditions, but also to the experience accumulated by local producers.

In the country, the volume of production of agricultural raw materials increases from year to year, there is a significant labor potential, many processing industries are equipped with modern equipment. In today there are enterprises created with the participation of investors from such developed countries as Germany, Holland, China, Austria, Korea, USA, Turkey, Russia, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, etc.

Over the years of independence, many efforts to fundamentally restructure the agricultural sector of the country were conducted. According to the principles for reforms, formulated by the First President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the economic transformations in the agriculture are carried out in phases.

The Government of Uzbekistan pays much attention to the development and reform of the sphere of production of fruit and vegetable products. But the available potential is not yet fully disclosed. Producers of agricultural products lack the latest knowledge and experience in growing and storing fruit and vegetable crops using modern technologies and exporting. There are also certain administrative barriers to the export of fruits and vegetables.

Recent changes in regional and global markets, as well as low efficiency of land use within the country, have shown the need for thorough review and reorganization of the existing system and implementation of further reforms in this sector. In this regard, in 2016 a new phase of the industry reform began, only in this industry dozens of regulatory and legal acts regulating relations in the production and sale of agricultural products were made, including dozens of Governmental decisions to reform the industry.1

The created legislative base will serve as an important factor in ensuring the effective operation of farming and dehkan farms as the main producers of agricultural products and a powerful socio-political force capable of taking responsibility for the further development of the agrarian and other sectors, as well as raising the level and quality of life of the population. All this will contribute not only to accelerating the pace of economic growth, but also to strengthening macroeconomic and social stability.

Thanks to the comprehensive measures taken by the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan to further promote the domestic fruit and vegetable products to foreign markets, the total volume of fresh and processed fruit and vegetable products exports for the first 9 months of 2016 exceeded 542.3 thousand tonnes, or, in total, 356.42 million USD, which is 40.4% more compared to the same period last year.2

Proceeding from the need to ensure the speediest implementation of the tasks assigned by the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Uzagroexportcarried out a set of measures aimed at further increasing the volume of exports, expanding the range and geography of their supplies through comprehensive and in-depth marketing research of world markets, selection and conclusion of long-term and Short-term contracts with reliable foreign buyers.

Along with the supply of fresh and processed domestic fruit and vegetable products to such traditional markets as Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan, measures are being taken to promote them to the markets of South and South-East Asia, as well as the Persian Gulf.

Based on the expected indicators of 2016, the strategic objectives for exporting in 2017 of fresh and processed fruit and vegetable products to foreign countries in the context of each region of the country are defined.

In particular, proceeding from the demand and the needs of the food markets of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan, JSC "Uzagroexport" is working on the creation and organization of deliveries to joint specialized trading houses, which was provided for in the above-mentioned government decisions.

An important factor in achieving further growth in total exports of fresh and processed fruit and vegetable products, in our view, is the creation of regional trade and logistics centers, including the availability of necessary storage facilities and loading and unloading equipment, a temporary storage warehouse and a customs post, container areas, / D station (branch) with the appropriate infrastructure for loading / unloading, parking lots for the waiting queue of heavy trucks, office space, etc.

For the further effective stimulation of the developed production, processing and export of the produce of the fruit and vegetable industry, it is necessary to inventory the legal, economic and organizational measures that are complex, the core of which should be the creation and development of agro-industrial firms through the vertical integration of processing and agricultural enterprises.

Such integration involves the transfer of long-term lease of land plots to processing enterprises for the creation of their own raw materials base. The creation of such firms will increase the interest of producers in the final result of their work and will reduce the costs of processing enterprises for the purchase of agricultural raw materials, will ensure a uniform and necessary quality of raw materials at competitive prices.

The created integrated system, the main elements of which should be on the one hand - the specialized foreign trade company JSC "Uzagroexport" and on the other -vertically integrated processing and agricultural enterprises, will solve the existing problems affecting the competitiveness of domestic fruit and vegetable producers. The most important among them are:

• -    Deep market research in the domestic and foreign markets to study the needs for the produce of the fruit and vegetable industry and determine the target sales markets;

• -    opening trading houses abroad and / or signing contracts with large wholesale buyers of fruit and vegetable industry products in the domestic and foreign markets and forming a portfolio of orders;

• -    Acquisition of horticultural raw materials from the population, dehkan farms and farms;

• -    advisory services to agricultural producers on the choice of species, varieties and seeds of fruits and vegetables based on demand and portfolio;

• -    advertising and creating the image of the production of the fruit and vegetable industry of Uzbekistan in foreign countries, including through participation in national and international fairs and exhibitions of the food industry, etc.

Implementation of measures to create a vertically integrated fruit and vegetable processing enterprises of the industry can be an important factor in strengthening their capitalization and involve significant amounts of resources to preserve the stable rates of development. Attracting foreign investment, can accelerate the process of modernization, technical and technological re-equipment of enterprises of fruit and vegetable industry, also depends on the ability of the processing enterprises to provide raw material itself, which is impossible without the development of vertical integration.

«Экономика и социум» №4(35) 2017