During the visit to Brussels on bilateral trade and economic relations between Uzbekistan and the European Union, on June 5-8, 2018, Uzbekistan delegation led by the Minister for Foreign Trade held a number of meetings with representatives of business circles from Belgium and the Netherlands.

During the visit to Brussels on bilateral trade and economic relations between Uzbekistan and the European Union, on June 5-8, 2018, Uzbekistan delegation led by the Minister for Foreign Trade held a number of meetings with representatives of business circles from Belgium and the Netherlands.

To discuss the experience of gardening companies of the Netherlands, using a cluster system, a meeting was organized in Amsterdam with representatives of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation of Netherlands, as well as the leaders of the Dutch Produce Association (DPA), the Fresh Produce Centre Association, the World Horti Center, Holland Horti International, Rijk Zwaan Export B.V.

At the meetings, the sides raised issues of developing cooperation between the two countries in the field of creating agro-clusters, introducing innovative methods to agriculture, as well as using the Dutch’s advanced know-how in the field of transport logistics, sanitary and phytosanitary measures for the export of Uzbekistan agricultural products to the markets of European countries. The possibility of establishing partnership between specialized universities of the Netherlands and Uzbekistan was also considered with the aim of organizing student exchange and internship training, as well as attracting leading Dutch specialists to Uzbekistan.

The Netherlands is of great commercial interest for Uzbekistan producers and opens up huge potential for them. The volume of imports of agricultural goods, including for subsequent re-export to other countries, amounts to several tens of billions of euros per year. The volume of exports is more than 91 billion euros per year.

According to the Ministry for Foreign Trade, business meetings in Belgium and the Netherlands that were held during the visit allowed the Uzbek side to study the principle of organizing the work of producer associations in order to promote the development of the agricultural production and trade sector. The Dutch partners expressed their readiness to strengthen cooperation with representatives of state and private enterprises of Uzbekistan, carrying out activities in the field of agricultural production.

Agreements were reached on organizing this year return visits of representatives of companies to Uzbekistan for identifying specific pilot projects for their joint implementation in the future.