MILAN, Italy, May 5. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will focus on enhancing food security in Uzbekistan, Kanokpan Lao-Araya, Country Director of the ADB for Uzbekistan, told reporters on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting in Milan, Italy, Trend reports.
“In Uzbekistan, the government has been supporting the private sector to invest in various horticulture and diversifying the agriculture. There are some areas in Uzbekistan that can grow high-value agricultural products in Fergana Valley, such as fruits and vegetables. So we support the government to invest in these areas and find the export destination to gain currency. ADB will focus on food security in Uzbekistan, as it is a very central area for producing horticulture,” she said.
Lao-Araya pointed out that in Fergana Valley in particular, Uzbekistan produces a lot of vegetables, fruits, enough to export.
“But the problem is that Uzbekistan is a double landlocked country. And there's still some area that we can help the government improve in terms of trade, logistics, facilitation, something maybe not directly related to agriculture per se, but we have been putting our program in water saving technology in terms of water resource management.
So this is important also to find a value addition instead of just exporting directly. And also there are some other areas that we will help the government in terms of meet the standard so that we can export to various destinations through the WTO accession,” the country director added.