Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Despite the relatively recent start of a project to transform UZBAT into an export hub for the supply of finished tobacco products to the countries of Central Asia and Mongolia, the geography of export supplies is expanding every month.

Since the second half of 2018, the products of the Samarkand cigarette factory have been successfully sold in the markets of neighboring Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

In December 2018, Tajikistan joined these countries and the first batch of tobacco products with the inscription Made in Uzbekistan has already been sent to this country. The company is seriously focused on increasing exports of finished products and is not going to be limited to the markets of Central Asia and Mongolia.

Since December, UZBAT has started to supply products to the Georgian market. On December 22, the first five trucks with a batch of products under the BAT brand names set off for Sakartvelo (the name of the country is Georgian).

Summing up the results of 2018, UZBAT AO successfully implemented the export program planned for this year, somewhat exceeding the export forecast obtained at the beginning of the year through the line of Uzbekoziqovqat Holding Company.

For 2019, the company has set itself even more ambitious plans for the export of finished products, the implementation of which will largely depend on the stable macroeconomic situation in the country and on export markets, as well as on the well-coordinated activities of all departments of the company.

The Uzbek-British company British American Tobacco Uzbekistan (UZBAT A.O.) was established on November 22, 1994 as a joint venture with state participation. The company is one of the leading foreign investors and the largest British investor in the Uzbek economy with a cumulative amount of direct investment of about US$400 million.

At the moment, UZBAT is the only manufacturing company of the BAT group in Central Asia, which includes the Tashkent office, Samarkand cigarette factory (BAT SSF), and Urgut fermentation plant (BAT UFZ) on the processing of raw tobacco.

The company operates in the framework of a full technological and production cycle - from growing in cooperation with domestic farmers and tobacco growers of green raw tobacco to the production of finished products for the needs of the domestic market and exports abroad.