Fruit and vegitable growing in uzbekistan

Expensive carrots in 2021

In Uzbekistan, the per capita consumption of carrots is higher than in the countries of Eastern Europe. The main reason is that carrots are an essential component of the most famous traditional Uzbek dish – plov. Although the cost of pilaf was determined by the prices of meat, rice and vegetable oil until 2021, with record-breaking high prices for carrots in 2021, their share in the cost of cooking pilaf has become much larger.
It all started with the boom in demand for carrots and beets in the Russian market, where they were jokingly called new symbols of wealth. Naturally, Russian importers started buying them in all neighboring countries, including Uzbekistan, causing the rapid rise in carrot prices in the domestic market. In a material published in June 2021 “Even the Uzbek pilaf is becoming more expensive due to high prices for carrots and beets in Russia”, we showed how the dynamics of carrot prices in Uzbekistan repeats the respective dynamics in Russia and in neighboring Tajikistan. The conclusion was obvious – since Russia is the largest and main export market for fruit and vegetables from Uzbekistan, the rise in prices for products in Russia is reflected in the growth in prices for the same goods in Uzbekistan.
However, the influence of foreign markets on the pricing of carrots in Uzbekistan was reduced to naught in the second half of July 2021, since the excitement had subsided by that time. On 16 July 2021, EastFruit analysts noted that the further dynamics of carrot prices in Uzbekistan would depend on the ratio of supply and demand in the domestic market, but wholesale prices continued to remain high and several times exceeded those in previous years.
Due to climatic peculiarities, carrots are sown and harvested in Uzbekistan 4 times a year: in March-April, May-June, July and in September-October. However, in 2021, even after the end of the third harvest (in July), carrot prices remained unprecedentedly high. They began to decline only in the third decade of August 2021, but the decline rate was slow and prices were still several times higher than last year’s.
In mid-October 2021, EastFruit wrote that carrot production in Uzbekistan could decrease in 2021, since frosts in early spring could affect the harvest of early carrots, and dry and hot summers could not but reduce the yield of mid-ripening and late-ripening carrots. According to analysts, such a sharp rise in carrot prices in Uzbekistan is most likely a combination of two factors: an increase in exports in the first half of the year and a decrease in carrot yields.
Prices decreased and the gap with last year’s levels narrowed only in the beginning of November 2021 when the harvest of late-ripening carrots ended. From 5 to 12 November 2021, the average wholesale prices for carrots decreased from 4,500 to 3,000 UZS/kg (from $0.42 to $0.28) and remain at this level until the end of December 2021. Nevertheless, wholesale carrots are still twice more expensive than in December 2020 and 3 times more expensive than in the same period in 2019. An increase in areas and production volumes in the carrot segment are expected next year. However, vegetable growers of Uzbekistan will add this season to their successes, as they made good money, and not only on carrots.

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