In 2024, Tajikistan significantly increased imports of foodstuffs, including wheat, rice, dairy products, and meat. This happened against the backdrop of the growth in domestic production of many of these goods, as reported by the ASIA-Plus news agency.
According to the Committee on Food Security of the republic, wheat imports amounted to 1.1 million tons, which is 41 thousand tons more than in 2023.
At the same time, the production of this grain increased by 2.4%, reaching 880.7 thousand tons according to the Ministry of Agriculture data.
It is worth reminding that Tajikistan's annual wheat demand is over 2 million tons. Nearly half of this volume is covered by domestic production - the country harvests around 1 million tons of wheat on average.
Tajikistan ranks second in the import of Kazakh wheat, after Uzbekistan. According to official statistics of Kazakhstan, in 2024, Tajikistan purchased 1.14 million tons of Kazakh wheat (this figure was lower in 2023 - about 1 million tons). Thus, the increase in imports is higher than reflected in the report of the Tajikistan Committee on Food Security - the country additionally purchased around 140 thousand tons of wheat from Kazakhstan.
Due to population growth, Tajikistan plans to increase wheat imports to 1,285,000 tons per year, and domestic production to 1,032,000 tons.