Fruit and vegitable growing in uzbekistan

Successful year for onion and cabbage growers

The first lots of early winter onions became available on wholesale markets in the beginning of April, and in the same month, Russia experienced a shortage of high-quality onions from last year’s harvest. Russian supermarket chains have significantly reduced purchases of local onions due to their poor quality and were expecting the supply of high-quality newly harvested onions from Central Asian countries. Thus, the season of exports to the Russian market has started quite successfully for the onion producers of this region.
The season for selling winter onions in Russia began almost 2 weeks later than in 2020, which extended the period for shipping onions from Central Asia to the Russian market by another 2 weeks.
As statistics show, the season for exporting onions from Uzbekistan ends in July, but favorable conditions for Uzbek exporters in foreign markets allowed to extend the season until October in 2021. In particular, Uzbekistan exported 11.3 thousand tonnes of onions from August to October 2021. In total, onion exports from Uzbekistan reached 184.3 thousand tonnes from April to December 2021, which is almost 20% more than in the same period in 2020.
The developments on cabbage market were similar. In 2021, early cabbage appeared on markets and supermarkets in Uzbekistan in the second half of March. It is one of the most important products in the country’s exports, and the exports often start even before cabbage appears on the domestic market. The main importers are Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, where local cabbages ripen later.
Due to the cold spring of 2021 in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, the start of early cabbage harvesting shifted by an average of two weeks there. Therefore, Uzbekistan had two additional weeks for export. Back in April 2021, EastFruit analysts suggested that the exports volumes of early Uzbek cabbage may increase in 2021 and the decline in export volumes in May 2021 will be less dramatic compared to May 2020.
As a result, the exports of cabbage from Uzbekistan amounted to 67.5 thousand tonnes worth $10.2 million in March-May 2021, which is 30% more in volume than in the same period in 2020. According to preliminary data, Uzbekistan exported 81.3 thousand tonnes of white cabbage worth $12.4 million from March to December 2021, which is 35% more in kind than in March-December 2020.
Note that the forecast for cabbage prices and the possibilities of its export remains very favorable for vegetable growers and traders in Uzbekistan, because of an acute shortage of cabbage in Russia.