After a series of seminars, trainings and publications by EastFruit about excellent opportunities for profitable blueberry cultivation in Uzbekistan, interest of investors in it has grown rapidly.
First of all, large Uzbek companies began to contact us with a request to help find blueberry seedlings and information on cultivation technologies in Uzbek climate. It was about projects on 5 to 10 hectares, with the possibility of expansion, since investors understood that growing a new crop in Uzbekistan is quite risky.
Foreign investors are now also showing interest in growing blueberries in the country. In particular, the Dunyo publication reports on the potential interest of the Spanish company Ideal Fruits in the creation of blueberry plantations in Uzbekistan. The company has experience in growing blueberries in Spain and Morocco – similar, though not the same climatic conditions.
Representatives of the Embassy of Uzbekistan visited the blueberry plantations of Ideal Fruits, a company for the production and sale of berries in the Spanish regions of Segovia and Asturias, and had online negotiations between the company’s management and Uzbek entrepreneurs working in this area, Dunyo reported.
During the negotiations, the CEO of Ideal Fruits David Muñoz Pascual spoke in detail about the rapid development of the global market for berries, in particular blueberries, and the emerging need to grow them in various regions to ensure year-round supplies to the market. According to David Muñoz Pascual, the blueberry harvest in Uzbekistan will be able to cover the unsecured demand for berries in early summer (June-July), given the climate of the region. Thus, blueberries can be harvested in the republic in a very favorable export period.
EastFruit experts believe that, due to the climatic conditions of Uzbekistan, early blueberry varieties from the southern regions can be supplied to the market much earlier, and blueberries in the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan can be harvested from May to July. Therefore, the season for harvesting and selling berries in the country can be quite long, which makes its production in the country especially attractive.
The head of the Spanish company noted that the potential for growing blueberries, like other types of berries, remains quite high in the region and, if properly organized, it will pay off fast enough. The Spanish side expressed its readiness to participate in the implementation of the joint project by selecting a suitable blueberry variety and sharing the accumulated experience in its growing, followed by a guaranteed purchase of the entire harvest.
In turn, the representative of Nurli Oshom Tongi LLC, Zhamshid Khodzhaev, informed the foreign side about the experience in implementing a pilot project to create a blueberry plantation in the Tashkent region. It was noted that the Uzbek side is interested in establishing cooperation with the Spanish company, implementing a joint project at one of the company’s farms in the Tashkent, Jizzakh, Kashkadarya and Namangan regions was suggested.
As a result of the negotiations, the parties agreed to send a trial batch of blueberries to Uzbekistan to study the local market’s demand, as well as prepare information on the climatic calendar in the regions proposed for the project.
According to EastFruit, there is no need to send trial batches of blueberries to study the needs of the Uzbek market. After all, blueberries have long been actively sold in Uzbekistan in supermarket chains. More than two years ago, we wrote that blueberries have become popular among wealthy people in Uzbekistan as a kind of symbol of prosperity, and they are often served even at weddings. Therefore, the import of blueberries into the country is growing, and even Ukraine began to export blueberries to Uzbekistan in 2021.
We can conclude that the implementation of an investment project for blueberry cultivation by a Spanish company in the country is still non-specific. It also seems that Ideal Fruits has not yet seriously studied the possibilities of creating such a business in Uzbekistan. However, given that Spain cannot supply blueberries to Russia, where blueberry prices remain among the highest in the world, setting up a company plantation in Uzbekistan would help solve the problem of accessing the lucrative Russian blueberry market. After all, Uzbekistan can freely supply fruits and vegetables to Russia now.
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