Uzbekistan's Spinning Industry Showing Rapid Growth

Driven by extremely favourable tax and input price conditions for foreign investors, Uzbekistan’s spinning industry has shown rapid growth in recent years. Gradual liberalisation of some economic regulations, like the recent liberalisation of currency exchange, and the decline of competing industries, such as Russia’s spinning sector, has aided this growth.

Especially in the last three years, Uzbekistan’s promotion of a special set of investment incentives and a new ‘textile cluster’ programme have generated strong interest and verifiable investments by spinners, the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US department of agriculture (USDA) said in its November 2017 report on ‘Cotton: World Markets and Trends’.

According to Uzbekistan government’s official estimate, its spinning capacity, which apparently includes projects underway but not yet fully operational, is about 2.6 million bales of cotton yarn in 2017.

The recently concluded 77th annual International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) Plenary Meeting in Uzbekistan gave the international cotton trade an opportunity to see the changes underway in the country’s cotton and textile sector, the report said.

Since its independence in 1991, it has been difficult to account for the final destination of Uzbekistan’s cotton exports, due to incomplete, inconsistent or long delayed trade data. It has been difficult to determine the exact quantity of cotton exports, because Uzbekistan itself does not report consistent trade figures. However, information provided at the ICAC meeting indicated that exports in recent years were substantially overestimated.