Baku, Azerbaijan, July 23
By Fikret Dolukhanov – Trend:
Uzbekistan will study experience of Russia's Tatarstan in fish production for implementation of projects aimed at developing fishing industry within the framework of newly created free economic zone, Uzbek media reported.
With this purpose, the delegation of Uzbekistan visited the Laishevsky district of Tatarstan, where they got acquainted with the project of the Biosphere-Fish fish farm.
The project provides for cultivation of 6 million sterlet fry and trout. The project will allow producing 50 tons of fish meat.
It was earlier reported that Uzbekistan will create the first free economic zone (FEZ) for development of fish farming - “Balyk ishlab chikaruvchi”.
The FEZ will be organized on the basis of property, land and water bodies belonging to the municipality of Kuyichirchik district of Tashkent region.
The FEZ will be operating for 30 years with possibility of further extension.
One of the main tasks of the FEZ is creation of breeding fish planting material by acclimating new and approved fish species for further development of own production, stocking of artificial reservoirs and providing fish farms.
The FEZ will also create modern complexes for processing fish, and producing fish products, such as canned food, caviar, flour, which can later be exported to neighboring countries.
In 2017, about 85,000 tons of fish were produced in Uzbekistan. In total, over 3,600 fish farming facilities work in the country, with the total area of water bodies used for fish farming exceeding 595,000 hectares.
Nevertheless, the share of fish in the total volume of consumption in the country is extremely small. For example, each person in Europe consumes 35-40 kilograms of fish per year on average, whereas in Uzbekistan this figure is no more than 4 kilograms.
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