On September 21, President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev held a meeting to analyze the effectiveness of reforms in plant quarantine.
The main goal of reforms in agriculture and the essence of the country’s export policy is production of products that meet the requirements of the world market. In light of this, the plant protection sphere was reformed, the Plant Quarantine Inspectorate was organized. This agency is taking measures to introduce international standards, promote exports, conclude agreements with foreign partners, create plant clinics and biological laboratories, introduce scientific achievements into the sphere, and train qualified personnel.
As a result of the first steps in this direction, permits were obtained to export 78 types of goods to 19 countries of the world.
A unified electronic system was introduced instead of dozens of paper documents for certification, and the processing time for exporters’ applications was reduced from 10 to 1 day.
At the meeting, the Head of the state got acquainted with the presentation of the activities carried out and outlined further tasks.
The presence of opportunities for entering new export markets and selling products at a cost 3-4 times more expensive than the current one was noted. The President emphasized that in order to produce goods in accordance with international phytosanitary requirements, it is necessary to assign quarantine inspectors to each enterprise engaged in the procurement, packaging and export of products.
The importance of holding negotiations with Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Egypt, Qatar, Mongolia, Afghanistan and other countries was noted in order to open up the opportunity for entrepreneurs to supply fruits and vegetables such as cherries, pomegranates, grapes and melons. The need for full use of the “from field to export” principle was emphasized.
As is known, in the coming years it is planned to bring the export of agricultural products to $5 billion. For this, it is important to increase the scientific potential of the sphere, to introduce an international certification system. In this regard, the Head of the state proposed to organize a large scientific center. Instructions were given to ensure the integration of science and practice, to clarify international sanitary requirements to specialists. According to these requirements, separate subjects will also be organized at Tashkent State Agrarian University and its branches.
205 plant clinics and 690 biological laboratories operate in the sphere with participation of the private sector. The need for increasing the number of such institutions to ensure quality and competition was noted.
The State Plant Quarantine Inspectorate was instructed to fully integrate its database into the Single Window electronic system of customs authorities by December 1.
Source: UzA
