Subsidies announced for fruit and vegetable processing to boost exports

Uzbekistan has announced plans to allocate up to 1 billion soums in subsidies for purchasing fruit and vegetable processing equipment. This was revealed on December 20 during a videoconference meeting chaired by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, where the results of the current year and the main plans for 2025 were discussed. The meeting focused on comprehensive support for entrepreneurship and included dialogue with leading entrepreneurs.

President Mirziyoyev noted that many entrepreneurs rely on fruits and vegetables from their farms, which complicates the consistent and qualitative supply of a single product type for export. This inconsistency has contributed to lower export revenues.

To address this issue, Uzbekistan is aiming to export fruits and vegetables worth $3.5 billion next year. To support this goal, one million hectares of fruit and vegetable lands have been connected to 760 seed-producing and 824 exporting enterprises.

A new experimental initiative is being launched in the Tashkent and Namangan regions. Lands previously used for cotton and grain production will be auctioned in large lots of up to 50 hectares and sold to professional investors for industrial plantations. On these lands, up to 20 hectares can be used for building facilities such as refrigerators, calibration workshops, and packaging workshops employing the "shock" method.

During the meeting, it was also highlighted that Uzbekistan is fostering a new class of "champion" entrepreneurs. These entrepreneurs manage businesses with over 5,000 employees, generate annual incomes exceeding 1 trillion soums, and pay taxes of at least 100 billion soums.