Sugar plants “Khorazm-Shakar” and “Angren-Shakar” ceased operations. Representatives of the industry in a conversation with Kun.uz noted that the decline was preceded by a drop in demand for the products of enterprises.
According to representatives of the “Angren-Shakar” plant, suppliers of raw materials have stopped deliveries. Both enterprises are unable to sell sugar due to uncompetitive prices, warehouses are full.
“Foreign partners have stopped the supply of raw materials, seeing that the plants are on the verge of bankruptcy,” the source said. He stressed that the market is filled with imported sugar, and local producers are not able to compete in price.
The representative of “Angren-Shakar” indicated that this year sugar was included in the list of food products, the import of which does not require payment of customs duty and excise tax. “Russian sugar at a lower price has completely filled the domestic market. The situation is the same with manufacturers in Kazakhstan,” he added. Kun.uz has not yet been able to get a comment from the JSC Uzbekoziqovqatholding.
This is not the first time that local factories have encountered problems. At the end of 2017, “Khorazm-Shakar” and “Angren-Shakar”, whose total production capacity can reach 700 thousand tons of sugar per year, suspended their operations due to the devaluation of the national currency. Then the JSC Uzbekoziqovqatholding called the lack of land and water for growing sugar beets as another limiting factor. Because of this, local enterprises were forced to load their capacities with sugarcane from abroad.
Today, about 2 thousand people work at two sugar plants in Uzbekistan. As Kun.uz managed to find out, Russian factories would like to hire some of these specialists.
