Tashkent, Uzbekistan, July 15
By Demir Azizov- Trend:
Investors from Singapore and Austria, who are the founders of "Angren Shahar" LLC plan to commission a sugar plant worth $108.45 million in Uzbekistan in September, a source in government circles of Uzbekistan told Trend.
Steps on the acceleration of the plant`s construction, which was initially scheduled for December 2014 are being taken, the source said.
As reported earlier, in 2012, Singaporean "Welton International Enterprises Pte. Ltd", "Kito Investment Pte. Ltd." and the Austrian "SEID Handelsgesellschaft mbH" created foreign enterprise "Angren Shahar" LLC with authorized capital of $20 million for the construction of a sugar plant in the Tashkent region with the design capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day. The plant will operate on processing of raw cane sugar.
The acceleration of the construction terms is to address the problem of providing the population and food industry with enough sugar.
As reported since June, speculation in the sugar market in Tashkent and a number of regions of Uzbekistan led to an unjustified increase in prices for this product.
At present, the need of confectionery enterprises in the sugar industry is met by about 40 percent, according to the Uzbekistan Food Industry Association.
As the Uzbek State Committee for privatization, demonopolization and development of competition said earlier, the reason for this was the "elementary speculative activities aimed at creating artificial shortage on the product, including, possibly, through concerted actions and collusion between market participants as of resellers and retail outlets."
Annual demand for sugar in Uzbekistan is about 700, 000 tonnes, and about 350, 000 tonnes of sugar is imported. Experts believe that "sugar crisis" in the country is partially a result of shortage in supply of imports.
At present, only the sugar plant "Khorezm Shahar" operates in Uzbekistan with the design capacity of 1,000 tonnes per day. The plant worth $83.25 million was commissioned in 1998. The owners of the JV "Khorezm Shakar" JSC are now "Motril Investments SA" (Panama, 69.43 percent), "Kito Investment Pte. Ltd" (Singapore, 20 percent), "SEID Handelsgesellschaft mbH" (Austria, 10 percent). Some 0.57 percent share of the company is in the property of the workforce.
In 2013, "Khorezm Shakar" increased output by 10.3 percent up to 356,470 tonnes compared to 2012, according to official statistics. It is assumed that with the commissioning of the new plant Uzbekistan will completely meet its need for sugar.
Edited by CN