Uzbekistan Joins Olive Council

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On August 31, 2021, Uzbekistan became the 18^th mem­ber of the International Olive Council (IOC).

“With the rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the agree­ment by Uzbekistan, the coun­try becomes a full mem­ber of the International Olive Oil Council shar­ing the objec­tives, mis­sion and oblig­a­tions of this impor­tant inter­gov­ern­men­tal body, the largest forum on olive grow­ing in the world,” said Abdellatif Ghedira, the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the IOC.

In June 2020, heads of a del­e­ga­tion meet­ing via video­con­fer­ence unan­i­mously approved Uzbekistan’s appli­ca­tion to join the IOC as an observer. A month later, the Uzbek del­e­ga­tion par­tic­i­pated (in observer sta­tus) in the 111^th ses­sion of the IOC via video link.

During the ses­sion, Jamshid Khodjaev, the Uzbek Minister of Agriculture said the coun­try had a lot of poten­tial for the devel­op­ment of the olive indus­try.

According to data from Juan Vilar Strategic Consultants, Uzbekistan pro­duces about 60 tons of olive oil each year and 30 tons of table olives.

Olives are grown in the two south­ern­most regions of the coun­try, which bor­der Afghanistan, Iran and Tajikistan. Juan Vilar Strategic Consultants esti­mate that there are 210 hectares of olive groves in the coun­try, most of which are tra­di­tion­ally har­vested.

One of the main chal­lenges fac­ing Uzbek olive grow­ers is the country’s low win­ter tem­per­a­tures, which reach a daily aver­age of 4 ºC to 7 ºC from December to February.

Officials from the coun­try said they have devel­oped their own vari­ety of olive known as Uzbek Olive, which is adapted to the local cli­mate. The deci­sion to breed Uzkbek Olives came after sev­eral failed attempts at cul­ti­vat­ing con­ven­tional olive trees in the mid-2000s due to severe freez­ing events.

“The acces­sion of our coun­try to an inter­na­tional agree­ment will open up a num­ber of oppor­tu­ni­ties for the fur­ther devel­op­ment of the indus­try in our coun­try,” said Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, fol­low­ing the rat­i­fi­ca­tion of the agree­ment.

Uzbekistan plans to estab­lish olive groves on 30 hectares in the Kashkadarya region, far­ther north than most of the country’s groves, and 500 hectares in the Surkhandarya region. They plan to plant 465,000 seedlings of local­ized, frost-resis­tant vari­eties, includ­ing Arbosana, Arbequina and Manzanilla from Spain, and Gemlik from Turkey.

By estab­lish­ing olive groves, Uzbekistan is seek­ing to tap into the lucra­tive $15 bil­lion indus­try. The coun­try also plans to increase other types of veg­etable oil pro­duc­tion for domes­tic con­sump­tion.

Currently, the coun­try pro­duces 55 per­cent of the oil con­sumed domes­ti­cally from soy­beans, cot­ton seeds, sun­flower and imports 45 per­cent to meet the demand.

As of June 2021, the United States Department of State rec­om­mends that no U.S. cit­i­zens travel to Uzbekistan due to the Covid-19 pan­demic. The United Kingdom Foreign Office said most vis­its to Uzbekistan before the pan­demic were inci­dent-free but urged cit­i­zens to be care­ful, espe­cially when trav­el­ing through rural areas.

• International Olive Council
• National News Agency of Uzbekistan
• East Fruit