Russia is asking for a quota of 200,000 tons of sugar to be supplied to Uzbekistan annually, RIA Novosti reported citing the Minister of Agriculture of Uzbekistan Jamshid Khodjayev as saying.

On Thursday, a meeting of the heads of working bodies of the Uzbek-Russian intergovernmental commission with participation of representatives of departments, companies and business circles of two countries was held in Tashkent.

“The Russian side has asked to provide a quota for the export of 200,000 tons of sugar to Uzbekistan,” Mr. Khodjayev said.

He clarified that in Tashkent, the issues of supplying Russian sugar to Uzbekistan were also discussed during the second meeting of the joint working group on cooperation in agriculture. At the meeting, the Russian side was represented by Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the RF Sergey Levin.

The Minister of Agriculture of Uzbekistan reported that in 2018, Russian companies supplied about 700,000 tons of sugar to Uzbekistan.

“This year supplies have been stopped, as sugar factories in Uzbekistan have started to work again. Also, sugar supplies from Iran, Pakistan, Ukraine and Belarus have become more active,” Mr. Khodjayev noted.

“Once upon a time, supplies of Russian sugar dominated the market of Uzbekistan, now competition has grown, the market dictates prices,” the minister said.

According to his estimation, Russian suppliers have great prospects, taking into account historical relations and potential for cooperation between countries.

President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, by his decree of September 15, 2017, zeroed the rates of import duties and excise taxes on the import of sugar and its derivatives into the country after the 30% rate was held on since early 2000s.

According to official statistics, the annual need of Uzbekistan for sugar is about 700,000 tons. In 1998, the IP JSC “Khorezm-shakar” built the first sugar factory in the country with a capacity of 1,000 tons per day of raw cane sugar. At the end of 2014, the IP LLC “Angren shakar” commissioned a sugar plant of similar capacity in Tashkent region. It was planned that these two enterprises should have practically covered the needs of domestic market. However, due to a high cost of supplying cane raw materials in the recent years, factories have not been working at full capacity.