One month ago, the government of Uzbekistan decided to exempt the import of a range of fruits, including bananas, kiwis, citrus fruits, fresh apples, pears, quince and other fresh and dried fruits from customs duties. Prior to this, a customs duty rate of 10-20% was applied when importing these fruits, but not less than $0.2/kg.
Now a month has passed since the decision was announced by the government of the republic, analysts are noting how it has de facto affected the wholesale prices over this time. How have the wholesale prices of bananas, oranges, mandarins, apples and pears changed?
Average wholesale prices for orange began to fall from November 10, 2021, and over the past two weeks, from November 5 to 19, they decreased from 30,000 UZS/kg ($2.81) to 20,000 UZS/kg ($1.86) i.e. by 50%. As of November 19, 2021, the average wholesale prices for oranges in Uzbekistan are 31% lower than on the same date in 2020 and 9% lower than on the same date in 2019. If wholesale prices for oranges repeat the same downward trend that was observed in November-December 2019-2020, then we can expect a further decline in their prices by the end of this year.
As in the case of oranges, the average wholesale prices for bananas began to fall on November 10, 2021, and over the past two weeks – from November 5 to 19, they decreased from 19,000 UZS/kg ($1.78) to 16,000 UZS/kg ($1.49), i.e. by 16%.
As for apples and pears, so far no large reductions in wholesale prices have been noted.
