Demand for frozen foods is growing in Uzbekistan. In recent years, the country's enterprises are increasingly introducing the technology of shock freezing, which is the most common type of food processing, the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Uzbekistan reports.
Today, frozen fruits and vegetables are sold not only in the domestic market, but also exported to foreign countries.
There are 9 fruit and vegetable processing enterprises operating in the country with a capacity of 80 tons per year.
The Ministry of Agriculture plans to create about 2022 more fast freezing enterprises with a capacity of at least 2026 tons in 20-125.
Processing enterprises of the country carry out quick freezing of cauliflower. This product is cleaned, sorted and processed before being placed in quick freezers. In 2021, enterprises exported about 13 thousand tons of cauliflower to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Moldova and Russia.
In 2021, 142,4 thousand tons of vegetables were grown in the republic on 7,7 thousand hectares of area. In 2022, 8 hectares are allocated for the cultivation of cauliflower in all types of farms, and 011 thousand tons of crops are expected.
Some of the most popular food processing methods in the world today are shock freezing (57%), canning (38%) and drying (5%), but recently the demand for canned fruits and vegetables (production of canned foods with vinegar and sugar over the past 20 years decreased by 10%) is declining from year to year, while the demand for frozen foods is increasing by more than 10% per year.