BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 15
By Klavdiya Romakayeva - Trend:
The largest volume of footwear imported from Uzbekistan from January through May 2021 fell on Kyrgyzstan, amounting to $6.8 million, Trend reports referring to Association of leather, footwear and fur and fur enterprises of Uzbekistan (Uzcharmsanoat).
According to the Uzcharmsanoat, in five months of 2021, enterprises in the industry exported footwear worth $12.2 million. During this period, Kazakhstan imported $3 million worth of Uzbek footwear, Tajikistan - $1.6 million. It is noted that Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan accounted for almost 94 percent of Uzbekistan's footwear exports.
Also, Uzcharmsanoat said that the largest exporter of footwear is the Samarkand region, which exported products worth $4.8 million over the five months of this year. Fergana ($3.1 million) and Andijan ($2.4 million) footwear producers are also in the list of major Uzbek footwear exporters.
It is reported that the volume of exports of footwear products in Uzbekistan in 2017-2020 increased threefold and reached $37 million. An impressive dynamics of growth in footwear exports is noted in neighboring countries - Afghanistan - 4 times, Tajikistan - 3.4 times, Kazakhstan - 2.2 times.
In addition, it was possible to expand the geography of supplies to 14 countries, including the US, Latvia, Moldova, the UAE, Kuwait, Singapore.
Moreover, the volume of attracted investments in the industry has increased 3.9 times over four years. Last year, despite the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, about $190 million were spent, including more than $60 million in foreign direct investment, which is 30 times more than in 2016.
An equally significant result of rapid development was a multiple increase in the number of employed in the industry by 5.4 times - from 2,200 in 2016 to 11,630 in 2020.
According to the official forecast, in 2021 it is planned to increase the production of footwear to 115 million pairs.
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