The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved of a $154 million loan to enhance horticulture value chain development in all 12 regions of Uzbekistan and the autonomous region of Republic of Karakalpakstan.
“ADB’s support will help increase access to long-term financing for horticulture farmers and enterprises along the horticulture value chain”, Bui Minh Giap, senior natural resources and agriculture economist with ADB’s Central and West Asia regional department, said. “It will allow them to increase their investments, maintain and expand employment, and generate stable incomes for themselves, their employees and suppliers”.
The government will re-lend the ADB loan to eight participating financial institutions that will extend the sub-loans to interested and qualified farmers and enterprises to finance horticulture operations, including planting materials, processing and storage equipment, and mechanical equipment.
In addition, the project will provide support to farmers and enterprise sub-borrowers to improve their business planning, horticulture agronomic techniques, post-harvesting operations and export market penetration.
Currently, the country produces about 16 million tons of fruits and vegetables per year and it is expected to increase this figure to no less than 32 million tons per year by late 2020.
Since Uzbekistan joined ADB in 1995, the country has received $5.1 billion in loans and $64.9 million in technical assistance grants. (Trend/Business World Magazine)
