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Uzbekistan’s food industry has utilized all allocated investment

19 August 2015 12:37 (UTC+04:00)
Uzbekistan’s food industry has utilized all allocated investment

By Vusala Abbasova

Uzbekistan's food industry used 106.6 percent of total investments for the first half of current year, according to remarks made during an August 17 press conference by the Uzbekistan Association of Food Industry.

The country planned to invest more than $55 million in food industry in 2015, while almost $28 million has been allocated in the first half of the year.

Under the local investment program, 983 investment projects with a total budget of 389.8 billion soms (over $150.7 million) were to be implemented in 2015, which was expected to open 10,575 new jobs.

As many as 541 projects with a cost of 151.78 billion soms (over $58.7 million) were carried out in the first six months of 2015, surpassing the target by 22 percent. That created 4,525 new jobs, or 126 percent of the target.

Furthermore, the results of economic reforms implemented in Uzbekistan over the last ten years were discussed during a press conference devoted to the stages of food industry development in the country.

The process of the gradual transition from the agrarian stage to industrial development has transformed the country’s food industry into a hi-tech sector in the country.

Therefore, 96 percent of demand is met by domestic production, ridding the country of the need to export meat, milk, and confectionary products.

There are more than 10,000 food products produced in the country, amounting to over 40 percent of the share of total consumption.

Large food industry enterprises have increased production of consumer products like canned meat (by 3.2 times), cereal canned (1.6 times), sugar (1.5 times), bakery products (21.2 percent), butter (17.7 percent), processed liquid milk (16.1 percent), tea (16.0 percent), and bread (11.6 percent) over the first half of current year.

The new facilities created through external and foreign investments have increased the share of its domestic processing industry by 1.5-2 times in Uzbekistan over the past five years.

Today, there are over 1,400 investment projects in the country, and foreign and external investments make up over $210 million.

Earlier, the Uzbekistan State Statistics Committee reported that the country spent a total $7.3 billion in investments in January to June 2015. This figure increased by 9.8 percent compared to the same period of 2014.

The total volume of foreign investments increased by 11 percent to over $1.5 billion, while the direct foreign investments increased by 10.9 percent to $1.2 billion.

Furthermore, the export potential of the country increased over the last ten years, including the export of fruit juice by 2 times and other production by 1.5 times, while costs increased six fold.

The country plans to implement over 300 large-scale projects with a cost of $410 million in order to create new enterprises, modernize existing plants, and increase their capacity by 2020.

In addition, Uzbekistan also intends to exceed the volume of industrial output. For this purpose, the country plans to implement over 5,000 projects with a total budget of over $500 million, which will create more than 10,000 new jobs, especially in rural areas.

These measures will provide the country with all needed production and will reduce the volume of imports of products by 80 percent by 2020.

The Food Industry Association was founded by 39 enterprises from the oil and fat industry, 21 enterprises from the flavor and fragrance industry, and 46 from the meat and dairy industry, 16 service companies, and others in order to coordinate business and trade.

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