Andalusia TRADE develops a multi-sector trade mission for six Andalusian companies in Uzbekistan

Boost community presence in Asia

This activity has made it possible to develop more than fifty business meetings with 35 local importers, through a work agenda that has been carried out in the town of Tashkent.

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The objective of this professional meeting has been expand the presence of Andalusian firms in the Uzbek market, a destination of opportunity that is a gateway to the central area of Asia, a continent in which Andalusia is advancing steadily by registering record exports of 4.556 million euros in 2022, 10,6% of the total, thanks to an increase of 26,2% compared to the previous year.

 

With incipient foreign trade, Uzbekistan is a business niche for Andalusian companies from sectors such as agri-food, consumption or energy, where the community's export fabric has important know-how. Therefore, the Business Agency for Economic Transformation and Development of the Junta de Andalucía has organized up to 2023 actions in 14 with this Asian country as a target market, in which a hundred companies have participated and among which individual projects, consulting programs, a visit to the fair have stood out. Agroworld Uzbekistan and actions of the campaign Club Asia. 

 

According to Andalucía TRADE reports, Uzbekistan is the republic of Central Asia which has transformed its economy the most in recent years, with a constant rate of growth (5,7% in 2022), thanks to the implementation of economic and political reforms, as well as rapprochement with the West.

 

The country, in addition to having a solid and diversified manufacturing industrial fabric, has important natural resources, such as natural gas, gold, uranium and copper, which give it an important competitive advantage in the international markets.

 

With a strategic location, Uzbekistan stands as an important transit center for trade between Asian markets and Europe. In addition, the country has invested in the modernization of its transportation infrastructure and has built new airports, roads and railways to improve regional connectivity in the last five years, making it a focus of attraction for investors and foreign companies that need to establish themselves in the region. region.

 

In this sense, it is expected to play a very relevant role in the coming years due to Russia's disconnection from the Western bloc, gaining prominence in the development of Eurasian geopolitics, not only at the diplomatic level, but also in commercial matters, for example. its important reserves of hydrocarbons and minerals, as well as to guarantee food security in European markets.

 

In addition, Uzbekistan has welcomed hundreds of European companies that were established in Russia before the conflict with Ukraine, as well as numerous Russian companies that are looking for a way to continue maintaining a commercial relationship with their traditional partners in the West, which also results in the attraction of human capital and investments.

 

Intense work schedule

The Andalusian delegation that has participated in the multi-sector trade mission organized by Andalucía TRADE It is made up of firms specialized in the production of olives and olive oil; the organization of events in the cultural and tourism sectors; as well as equipment for the cold industry; and legal services.

 

Specifically, two of these companies come from Cordoba (Infrico and Mueloliva and Minerva); two others are from Seville (Agro Sevilla Olives and Acciona Productions and Design); one comes from Jaen (Acesur); and another one of Malaga (Bañares Abogados).

 

The six Andalusian companies have held three days of intense work, in which they have developed an extensive agenda of top-level contacts with 35 local importers, with whom they have held 54 business meetings to establish new commercial relationships.

 

Among these international agents, the country's main supermarket chain, Havas Food, stands out; Uzbekistan's largest importer of consumer goods, Impall Trading; the first travel agency in the republic, Travel System; or one of the most relevant brands of kitchen furniture, Professional Kitchen.

 

The organization of this action by Extenda will be co-financed with funds from the European Union through the FEDER OP of Andalusia 2014-2020, endowed with a community contribution of 80%, or any other European Program that may co-finance this action.

 

Asia, second continent that advances the most

Andalusia maintains a strategy of diversification of your international sales which has translated into important advances on all continents in the last year. Thus, Asia registered record exports of 4.556 million euros in 2022, thanks to an increase of 26,2% compared to the previous year, which makes it the second continent where Andalusian foreign trade progresses the most.

 

With this invoice, Andalucía is positioned as the second exporting community Asia, with 14,2% of the national total, only behind Catalonia (29,3%), and it is the one that grows the most of the seven that register the most exports and the one that contributes the most to the growth of Spanish sales, with 3,3 .13 points of the XNUMX% that Spain advances.

 

The main destinations for Andalusian sales to the Asian continent are, on the one hand, the most eastern markets, with China at the top, with 1.559 million, 34% and an increase of 12,9%; as well as those of the Arabian Peninsula, where it stands out Saudi Arabia, with 974 million, 21,4%, which multiplies its bill by six. Thus, Uzbekistan, which is just beginning to make international purchases, is a market of interest to expand the presence of Andalusian companies in the interior of the continent and thus diversify exports and minimize risks.