For the first five months of this year, Uzbekistan imported a record volume of marketable potatoes, with about 75% of this volume imported in March-May this year, analysts of EastFruit note.
According to preliminary data of international trade statistics, in January-May 2023, Uzbekistan imported 314.4 thousand tons of potatoes worth $33.9 million, which in physical terms is 12% more than in the same period of 2022-2021. For comparison, in January-May last year, Uzbekistan imported 280.7 thousand tons of this product, and in the same period of 2021, the previous record was set – 281.1 thousand tons.
At the same time, three-quarters of the total volume of imported potatoes for January-May 2023 accounted for the total share of three months – from March to May. While in January-February, 78.7 thousand tons of marketable potatoes were imported, in March-May, total imports of this product amounted to 235.7 thousand tons, which is 46% more than in the same period last year and 17% more than in March-May 2021.
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One of the factors behind the growth in imports of this product in March-May this year is a significant delay in harvesting the new potato crop. This year, potato planting in the southern regions of Uzbekistan, where the first wholesale shipments of potatoes to the domestic market usually come from, started at the end of the second decade and beginning of the third decade of February, about three weeks later than last year. Accordingly, the harvesting of potatoes has shifted by the same period. At the beginning of March this year, EastFruit analysts predicted that this would lead to an increase in imports of this product in the first half of 2023.
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