The harvest of white cabbage in Uzbekistan was seriously affected due to the abnormal cold in Central Asia in January of this year. As a result, cabbage prices rose sharply, and the export volume decreased by more than twice compared to the same period last year, EastFruit analysts say.
In Uzbekistan, seedlings of winter white cabbage are planted mainly in August, and, depending on the variety and the vegetation period, the harvest is from November to April of the next year. Early varieties are harvested in November-December, mid-season varieties are harvested in January-February, and late varieties are harvested in March and early April of the next year.
From the beginning of November 2022 to the end of the first decade of January 2023, white cabbage in Uzbekistan was harvested as usual, but the cold air mass that covered the entire territory of the country changed this and caused huge losses of white cabbage that had not yet been harvested by that time.
We remind you that anomalous cold weather was observed in Uzbekistan on January 10-16, 2023, with the air temperature in the country’s capital dropping to -13 C in the daytime and to -17 C at night. Starting from January 17, there has been a gradual warming – up to the 25th of January, the temperature was slightly above zero in the daytime and dropped to -7 Cat night.
Due to the prolonged exposure to low temperatures, most white cabbage that had not yet been harvested by that time froze in the fields. With the onset of warming in late January and early February, frozen cabbage in the fields began to rot. As farmers say in the southernmost region of Uzbekistan, Surkhandarya, which is one of the main regions for the production of “August” white cabbage, crop losses are about 80% -90%.
A quite obvious consequence of the huge reduction in the supply of white cabbage in the domestic market of the country was a sharp increase in its prices. According to the results of a retail audit of supermarket chains in the capital of Uzbekistan in mid-November 2022 when the harvest of early varieties of “August” cabbage began, its average retail price in supermarkets was 2 400 UZS/kg ($0.21). As of February 08, 2023, white cabbage was sold in supermarkets in the capital of Uzbekistan at an average of 6 000 UZS/kg ($0.53). In other words, retail prices for cabbage have increased by 2.5 times since the start of harvesting the cabbage of the new crop.
However, fresh white cabbage is not a that important vegetable in the consumer basket of Uzbeks, nor is it one of the main ingredients in traditional Uzbek cuisine compared to potatoes, onions, or carrots.
For more information: east-fruit.com