Uzbeks Tighten Up on Farm Exports

Since early July, the Uzbek authorities have placed even tighter restriction on the border with Kyrgyzstan as a way of curbing exports of agricultural exports, the Russian news agency Regnum reports. 

The measure is part of annual efforts by Tashkent to keep farming produce in the country and hold down prices, although it is especially severe this summer because official crossing-points have been closed to all but limited traffic since ethnic violence hit Kyrgyzstan in June 2010, and the change of regime that preceded it in April.

However, it seems to have had a mixed effect – while perishable fruit and vegetables have become cheaper as a result, meat and flour have become more expensive in Uzbekistan.

A local commentator explained, "There is an upward trend in meat prices because farmers used to import their livestock fodder from Kyrgyzstan. Also, Uzbek farmers graze their animals on pastureland inside Kyrgyzstan from spring to the start of winter, and this has become impossible because the border is closed."

Trade between the two neighbour was already restricted, but has decreased even further. The Central Asian Free Market Institute in the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek reports that bilateral trade turnover has halved in the last 15 months.

Kyrgyz exports of mainly Chinese-made consumer goods to Uzbekistan have also been badly hit.

"Since spring last year, Uzbekistan hasn’t been allowing anyone out, so many traders have gone bankrupt," Abdurashid Qayumov, a trader at the massive wholesale market at Karasuu, said. "It used to be that 80 per cent of our goods were taken by shuttle traders from Uzbekistan."

Ravshan Mominov, a merchant in the Uzbek town of Fergana, said that goods continued to be smuggled out of Kyrgyzstan, at a higher cost as the frontier guards were demanding bigger bribes. The danger of being shot by these armed units is also higher, reducing the number of smugglers willing to take the risk. (See Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan: Fatal Shootings on Uzbek Border )

Since Kyrgyzstan is also suffering from reduced supplies – and therefore higher prices – of fuel, fertilisers and farming products normally imported from Uzbekistan, economists there believe the situation could be resolved by creating free trade areas on both sides of the border, The idea is favoured by the Kyrgyz authorities.

This article was produced as part of IWPR's News Briefing Central Asia output, funded by the National Endowment for Democracy.