DUSHANBE, September 28, Asia-Plus - Tajikistan has supplied more than 75,000 tons of fruits and vegetables to the Russian Federation, Belarus and Kazakhstan since May, which is 11,000 tons more compared to the same period of last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

The Deputy Agriculture Minister, Sadoqat Sanginova, said that Tajikistan plans to produce 700,000 of vegetables, 550,000 tons potatoes, 148,000 tons and 95,000 tons of grapes this year.  

“We plan to have exported further 164,000 tons of fruits and vegetables as well as dried and tinned fruits by the end of the year,” Sanginova said, noting that 90 percent of tinned fruits produced in Tajikistan is exported to the mentioned countries.   She stressed that fruit and vegetable exports will not affect Tajik domestic market.  “Before we started export of vegetables and fruits our experts analyzed the domestic market and the country’s requirements in these products,” Sanginova noted, adding that the survey’s results have shown that there will be no shortage of fruit and vegetable products this year.  

According to her, under the survey Tajikistan’s annual requirement in vegetables and fruits is 536,000 and 100,000 respectively.  “Our specialists expect this year’s vegetable and fruit harvests will exceed the last year’s ones by 5 percent,” Sanginova said.