Food surge costs Eurasian nations to ban food exports

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The harshest winter since 2008 is contributing to shortages of staple vegetables in Central Asia and is moving north in a region still suffering from COVID-induced food inflation.

In Uzbekistan, record frosts highlighted deficiencies in the national electricity system, as even citizens of the capital went days without electricity. But the blood loss has also affected the agricultural sector of the region’s most populous country.

On January 20, Uzbekistan’s agriculture minister announced a four-month ban on onion exports after they doubled in 3 weeks.

The name of the ministry, “There are onion stocks in Uzbekistan,” portends panic.

Once among the cheapest onions produced in the countries of the former Soviet Union, Uzbek onions are now like onions from countries such as Georgia and Moldova, the ministry said, reaching between 6,000 and 8,000 sums (53 to 71 cents) per kilo.

If frost has ruined a component of the onion inventory in inventory, it is the only source of pressure on prices. Large power outages have put logistics to the test, with fuel stations closed and roads covered in ice, the ministry said.

In comments to personal news Gazeta. uz, a resident of the Bukhara region recounted the best storm: “Due to the closure of gas stations, there are disorders in public transport. On Tuesday we went to the market and saw only taxis. Food prices have risen. It is said that there are no longer any goods from Tashkent.

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The value of potatoes has also increased since the beginning of the year, by 14%, the specialized media in agriculture East Fruit reported last week.

Price adjustments elsewhere in Central Asia have been less severe, but experts say the true influence of the freeze will become apparent in the coming weeks and months.

A representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Tajikistan, Bakhtiyor Abduvokhidov, told East Fruit that carrots would likely be in short supply soon, noting that Tajik farmers tend to buy carrots harvested in the ground due to the lack of warmer garage space. .

“It remains to be said how [the carrots] withstood the frost; we have to wait until the soil thaws and the first batches are extracted to assess the damage,” Abduvokhidov said. “However, since the temperature in the spaces where the cores have remained on the ground for several consecutive days has dropped to -15 degrees Celsius at night, it can be assumed that they are damaged. “

Last week, Kazakhstan Uzbekistan led the ban on exports of root vegetables.

The Ministry of Trade and Integration said on Jan. 22 that Kazakh onion costs had risen more than 5% in a week.

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Zhumangarin said his ministry is being executed with the border government to prevent smuggling.

Kazakhstan recorded Central Asia’s figure for food inflation last year, at more than 25 percent, driven in part by the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

After the fatal riots last January, the government is involved in this trend. In a move toward price spikes, the Commerce Ministry said it had ordered Kazakhstan’s regions to source from manufacturers in the agriculture-rich southern region of Turkestan.

But there, too, frost has taken its toll, with greenhouses in Turkestan, more than two-thirds of Kazakhstan’s total, experiencing large-scale crop failures.

Turken farmers interviewed via local media Otyrar. kz blamed low-quality coal for the season’s losses and said the fuel had failed to heat the structures’ internal heating pipes. 250 tons, the rest of the product being wasted.

Another initiative that, according to the Ministry of Commerce, will stabilize the onion market is a 6,000-tonne procurement agreement in Tajikistan.

Authorities in Tajikistan’s Khatlon region said they had concluded export agreements with the Kazakh ambassador and a delegation of Kazakh businessmen and noted the prospect of increased agricultural exports to Kazakhstan.

Dushanbe is ambivalent about the effect this has on domestic prices.

According to a report through independent media Asia-Plus, Tajik onion costs tripled year-on-year to around 73 cents per kilogram, measured in opposition to the official exchange rate. in Tajikistan successfully, with only “minor losses”.

For Eurasianet. org

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