The world has an increasing taste for dried fruits, evidenced by a positive trend in dried fruit production, which was increased by 976,000 tons in the past decade, and now amounts to 3.2 million tons. Global exports of dried fruit amounted to US$ 4.13bn in 2019, and the total size of the market has been rather stable in the last five years, although it was affected negatively by the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. Uzbekistan produces and exports a rich array of dried fruits, including raisins, plum and apricots.

The value of Uzbek dried fruit exports has grown 46.8% between 2017 and 2019, from US$ 99 million to US$ 145.4 million. In particular, dried grapes constitute the lion's share of the country's dried fruit exports (71.9% of dried fruit exports in 2019), as Uzbekistan exported US$ 104.6 million of dried grapes in 2019, making it the sixth-largest dried grape exporter worldwide. Exports of prunes and dried apricots during the period were US$ 15.8$ and US$ 11.2 million, respectively. The three products concentrate 90.5% of the dried fruit exports of Uzbekistan.

While exports of dried fruits from Uzbekistan have been growing in the last few years, they remain very concentrated in a few markets, notably in the Commonwealth of Independent States (notably, the Russian Federation) and China (for dried grapes. While the two countries have been recently dynamic importers of dried fruits, exports of dried fruits from Uzbekistan to key import markets like the European Union, which in 2019 accounted for 47.7% of world imports of dried fruits, are significantly below potential. Specifically, such exports in 2019 were US$ 10.5 million, equivalent to 7.5% of dried fruit exports of Uzbekistan. Additionally, exports to other important and growing markets for dried fruits like India are negligible.

Building on and complementing previous work by other development partners, a research study carried out by UNCTAD will be presented in this seminar, looking at the current status and future perspectives of Uzbek dried fruit exports. Specifically, UNCTAD's study: i) revises in detail the global trade in dried fruits and the position of Uzbekistan within that trade; ii) analyses data from a purpose-built field survey implemented in five regions of Uzbekistan to show the connection between the value chain of dried fruits in Uzbekistan and quality of dried fruit in the country; iii) discusses the importance of trade standards for the export of dried fruits from Uzbekistan; and iv) discusses potential ways to improve both the volume and value of Uzbek dried fruit exports.

The objective of this national virtual workshop is to contribute to policy discussions with the different stakeholders from the public and private sectors, International Organizations and others in order to strengthen the integration into regional and global value chains of the dried fruits value chain in Uzbekistan. During the workshop, the empirical and analytical findings of the project will be presented, regarding the existing situation of dried fruits exports of Uzbekistan and its connection to the functioning of the domestic value chain, and we will discuss possible ways in which the current and future policy framework in Uzbekistan can be strengthened in order to contribute to public policy formulation in the sector.