Uzbekistan to grow its own tea

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

Uzbekistan intends to become a serious player in the tea market in the next few years.

This follows from the government decree “On measures to organize the production of tea and provide the population with high-quality tea and tea products of domestic production” of June 30, 2018, Uzbek media outlets reported.

In four regions of the country - Navoi, Tashkent, Jizzakh and Surkhandarya, industrial plantations to grow tea with a total area of 283 hectares will be established. By 2025, they will annually produce 189 tons of tea.

To organize this work, the Scientific and Production Center for the Development of Tea Production will be established in the country. Its founders are Uzbekozikovkatholding, Bay Tea Group, BMB Trade Group, as well as tea farms.

This institution will organize the harvesting of seed and tea seedlings, providing farms and entrepreneurs with them, developing technology for cultivating this crop, taking into account the climate and other conditions of the republic, creating industrial tea plantations, and gradually increasing the volume of tea production.

In addition, it will be responsible for the introduction of modern lines of industrial processing and packaging of tea products, the development of systems to maintain high-quality products and marketing in order to bring the Uzbek tea to foreign markets, maintain contacts with world tea producers to share experiences and attract modern proven technologies for tea and tea products.

The establishment of an enterprise for the production of tea and tea products in the Zaamin district of the Jizzakh region in conjunction with Uzbekozikovkatholding is one of the first steps of the center.

In February 2018, it was reported that the construction of an enterprise for the production of tea from the leaves of mulberry (mulberry) will begin. It is expected to start operations in December 2018. The cost of the project is $ 2 million.

Earlier, in February 2013, a document permitting individual entrepreneurs to import tea raw materials to Uzbekistan without the formation of a legal entity entered into force. According to official data, the volume of the Uzbek tea market was estimated at about 45,000 tons per year. In terms of consumption of tea, Uzbekistan in 2013 occupied one of the leading places in the world - 2.65 kilograms per capita per year.