Uzbekistan ranked second in purchasing Belarusian goods at BUCE auctions.

Photo: BUCE, June 6, MINSK . From January to May of this year, Belarusian enterprises increased their exports to Uzbekistan via the Belarusian Universal Commodity Exchange (BUCE) by 2.8 times. The total value of transactions amounted to $47.6 million, allowing Uzbekistan to become the second-largest purchaser of Belarusian-made goods at exchange trades after RUSSIA, the commodity exchange's press service told BELTA.

Lumber, MEAT products, and powdered MILK were in greatest demand among Uzbek importers . These product groups accounted for almost the entire volume of exchange deliveries to the Uzbek market.

Prospects for expanding cooperation between Belarus and Uzbekistan in the exchange sector by strengthening ties with private businesses were discussed during talks with the leadership of the National Economic Cooperation of Uzbekistan Association, which assists small and medium-sized businesses in finding trading partners abroad. The meeting took place at the BUCE headquarters in Minsk.

According to Fayoz Fakhriddinov, founder of the National Economic Cooperation of Uzbekistan Association, over 30 companies currently belong to the organization he leads, many of which are interested in the Belarusian market for both procurement and supply. "These are primarily small manufacturing and trading enterprises that would like to work with Belarus but are hesitant due to a lack of understanding of the local market. In my opinion, the exchange could remove this barrier by providing Uzbek entrepreneurs with the opportunity to trade directly with Belarusian companies," he said.

The meeting resulted in a cooperation agreement between BUCE and the National Economic Cooperation of Uzbekistan Association. Specifically, plans include holding joint webinars on exchange trading, organizing visits by business delegations, and forwarding purchase and sale orders received by the association from Uzbek business circles to the exchange.

As of June 6, 216 Uzbek residents, including three stockbrokers, were accredited at BUCE. Since the beginning of the year, 39 new companies have joined the pool of Uzbek trading participants.