BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 10. Uzbekistan has exported about 5.7 million pairs of shoes worth $10.2 million from January through March 2023, Trend reports Uzbekistan’s State Statistics Committee.
During the reporting period, the country’s footwear export has increased by 22.8 percent, compared to the figure for the first three months of 2022 – $8.3 million.
From January through March 2023, Uzbek footwear was mainly exported to Kazakhstan (2.4 million pairs), followed by Kyrgyzstan (2 million pairs), Tajikistan (1 million pairs), Russia (135,000 pairs), etc.
In 2022, Uzbekistan exported over 28.3 million pairs of shoes worth $44.6 million. The value of footwear exports, in the reporting period, increased by $7 million or 18.7 percent, compared to the corresponding period in 2021.
Uzbekistan is an industrially developing country that attaches great importance to the leather and footwear sector.
Taking into consideration the positive impact of leather and footwear production on the country's export indicators, the Chairman of the Uzcharmsanoat association, Fakhriddin Boboev, told Trend that the association plans to increase the volume of leather and footwear production up to 18.6 trillion soums ($1.6 billion) by 2026 – an increase of 3.2 times.
Meanwhile, during the first quarter of 2023, Uzbekistan exported to its trade partners goods and services worth $5.6 billion, decreasing by 2.6 percent year-on-year (3M2022 – $5.8 billion).