On August 18, within the framework of the visit of the Minister of Transport of Uzbekistan Ilhom Mahkamov to Latvia, the Freeport of Riga Authority signed a memorandum of cooperation with the national railway company of Uzbekistan - State joint-stock railway company "O'zbekiston temir yo'llari" (Uzbekistan Railways), according to the Freeport of Riga. The memorandum will foster strengthening and developing mutual cooperation and informational support between the port of Riga and Uzbekistan, with the aim of promoting more efficient use of transport and transit potential.
By signing the memorandum, the parties undertook to strengthen mutual cooperation to provide favorable and competitive conditions for import, export and transit cargo flows between Latvia and Uzbekistan and in the opposite direction, as well as the exchange of information on cargo flows and support for the development of international transport and logistics projects of both countries.
“The Freeport of Riga Authority work is targeted at strengthening economic cooperation with partners and developing cooperation in the field of information exchange, transit, logistics and goods transportation. We highly value our Uzbekistani partners and hope for active and mutually beneficial cooperation in the near future," said Mārtiņš Ziemanis, Deputy CEO of the Freeport of Riga.
At the same time, the parties undertook to provide the necessary support for the preparation, organization and conduct of mutual informative events.
The memorandum enables the Freeport of Riga to post information about the Riga port’s operation, services and their costs, conditions of cooperation and the relevant potential benefits on the official website of the Uzbekistan Railways with the aim to inform cargo owners and potential customers on the Uzbek side.
Until now, the cooperation of the port of Riga with Uzbekistan in terms of received and sent cargo has been changing and was mostly influenced by geopolitical conditions. In 2021, containerized cargo - agricultural and food products, including frozen products, various equipment, machines and electrical devices, metal products, pharmaceutical products, and chemical goods - were sent from the port of Riga to Uzbekistan. Containerized cargo received from Uzbekistan included plastic products, fruit and nuts, seeds, vegetables, and cotton.
At the beginning of 2022, when the situation in the world markets changed and new logistics routes were sought for various goods, cargo turnover with Uzbekistan in the port of Riga has grown rapidly - 48.9 thousand tons of cargo were received from Uzbekistan – plastic products, nuts and fruit, as well as mineral fertilizers. 52.0 thousand tons of cargo were sent to Uzbekistan, including 42.8 thousand tons of cane sugar from Brazil. These trends indicate a noteworthy potential for future cooperation with Uzbekistan.