Forty-five-year-old Muboraksho Davlatov, a resident of Vakhsh village in Jayhun district, has been managing his family farm, “Ahmad-2013,” for twenty years. His wife, three sons, and brother all work on the four-hectare farm. Among Khatlon traders, Muboraksho’s farm is famous for its carrots and melons. In a good season, they harvest up to 150 tons of fruit and vegetables.
Jayhun district, located in the Khatlon province, is well known for its agricultural productivity. However, due to poor transportation infrastructure and limited cold storage facilities, many of the region’s agricultural products fail to reach lucrative domestic or foreign markets, leading to major losses for farmers and the spoilage of many fruits and vegetables. Also, price changes have a great effect on farms like Muboraksho’s. For example, in 2018 when the price of carrots collapsed from 1 Somoni ($0.09) to 0.30 Somoni during the harvest season, Muboraksho left 40 tons of carrots in his field to rot as it was not worth the cost of harvesting them.
To solve problems faced by producers like Muboraksho, in July 2020, the USAID Agribusiness Competitiveness Activity in Tajikistan together with the USAID Competitiveness, Trade and Jobs Activity in Central Asia supported the launch of an agro-logistic center in Khatlon’s largest city, Bokhtar. The privately run center is equipped with modern cold storage facilities that can accommodate up to 600 tons of produce. The facility is used to sort, grade, and package products for sale in the country’s urban markets.
The owner of the center, Rustam Izzatov, praised USAID, saying “USAID transformed our center from a simple warehouse into a large modern logistics center. Today, all large domestic and international food exhibitions are held here because we have quality storage space and can offer a variety of services to businesses.” The center will also help the region’s agricultural products meet export requirements.
In November 2020, the USAID Agribusiness Competitiveness Activity conducted business-to-business meetings between representatives from the largest supermarket in Dushanbe, Auchan, and Khatlon-based agro-businesses. The meetings resulted in Kombianti Khurokvori signing an agreement to supply two tons of fresh carrots to Auchan.
“Selling carrots to the logistic center was very beneficial to me. The cold storage has become a lifesaver and I am now confidently able to hire people during the harvest season. I made $3,550 profit by selling 150 tons of carrots to the center and used part of my profit to build a new home for my family, " Muboraksho noted proudly.
Following this deal, in December 2020, Auchan purchased an additional $10,000 worth of fruits and vegetables from Khatlon-based farmers. Cooperation between Auchan and the logistics center has been formalized and strengthened through an annual trade agreement. Based on this agreement, Auchan now makes regular purchases from the logistics center. For example, Auchan and other Dushanbe markets purchased 96% of the 500 tons of vegetables processed at the logistic center in the past 6 months. All of the vegetables came from local producers like Muboraksho.
After the Auchan agreement the USAID Agribusiness Competitiveness Activity also helped Kombinati Khurokvori receive a European Union export certificate, allowing them to export their products to the European Union and benefit from market preferences for developing countries. The agri-logistic center continues to connect Tajikistan's agricultural producers with other urban consumers and helps the region’s agricultural products meet export requirements. Muboraksho now sells his carrots to the logistic center, who stores it and finds the right market for his produce, providing dependable support to his farm.
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