Businessmen in Kyrgyzstan report that vegetables are being smuggled into the country from Uzbekistan and China. Although the government is constantly declaring the need to support greenhouse agriculture, prioritizing the industry and providing preferential loans, the businessmen claim that the inflow of contraband products makes it difficult for them to be profitable.
"Today, the prices for greenhouse vegetables are unstable. It happens that price of, for example, cucumbers is kept at 250 soms, and then falls to 170 or even up to 90 soms for a day. In such circumstances, it is impossible to build management properly, implement financial planning. Sometimes we don't even have money to pay suppliers," Tilek Toktogaziev said.
"Most of the smuggling comes from China and Uzbekistan. The neighboring countries now have hundreds of hectares placed under greenhouses. Their cost of goods is lower than ours," he added.
(1 Kyrgystani Som=0.015 USD)
Source: eng.24.kg