TASHKENT (TCA) — This year Uzbekistan will start production of potato chips. The project will be implemented at East West Invest enterprise in Tashkent, Novosti Uzbekistana reported.
The project is estimated to cost US $10 million and is designed to produce 6.7 thousand tons of products per year.
So far, Uzbekistan has not processed and exported potato.
According to the Economy Ministry, last year Uzbekistan produced around 2.7 million tons of potato.
Potato production in Uzbekistan has grown almost eight-fold compared to 1991, when the country produced 341 thousand tons of potato.
It was earlier reported that Uzbekistan plans, until 2020, to reduce the production and state purchases of raw cotton from today’s 3.350 million down to 3 million tons a year. The planned reduction of cotton production by 350 thousand tons per year would make some 170 thousand hectares of irrigated farmland available for other crops. That was announced by Uzbek President Islam Karimov at the Government meeting last month.
These former cotton plantations will be used to grow vegetables, potato, fodder and oil-bearing crops, as well as plant orchards and vineyards.
Due to optimization of land use and introduction of the latest agricultural technology Uzbekistan plans to increase potato production by 35 percent by 2020.
The President also said that implementation of the plan will help increase the export of agricultural products.
