Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- China is the largest market with a growing middle class of more than 400 million people, which ranks first in the world in terms of the retail food market. The consumption of food and beverages in the PRC today is more than US$1 trillion and continues to increase.

The most popular and widespread legumes in the China market are soybeans, green mung bean, beans, lentils, sainfoin, chickpeas, fodder peas, peas, lupines, broad beans, and peanuts. In particular, mung bean is included in the diet of every Chinese. It is used in different ways in cooking. For example, in addition to preparing hot dishes and salads, flour, funchose, confectionery, yoghurts, drinks with milk, tea and various additives are prepared from mung bean in various ways.

Useful properties: mung bean is a high-calorie product. Mung bean contains almost all trace elements and vitamins necessary for the normal functioning of all organs. Rich in vitamins C, B (B1, B2, B4, B5, B6, B9), E, K, PP. Contains calcium, phosphorus, iron, magnesium, sodium, fluorine, zinc, manganese, selenium. The Chinese believe that mung bean inhibits the growth of cancer cells.

Due to the lack of its own crop, China imports mung beans from other countries. The main suppliers are Myanmar, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, Australia and Thailand. The volume of annual consumption of mung bean grows from year to year: if in 2018 this product amounted to 89 thousand tons, then in 2019. and 2020 - 113 thousand tons and 205 thousand tons, respectively.

Taking this into account, the Embassy of Uzbekistan in the PRC is actively promoting the domestic mung bean to the Chinese market. Within the framework of the visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev to China in 2018, a number of bilateral agreements in the trade and economic sphere were signed. Among them is the "Protocol on phytosanitary requirements for the export of mung bean from Uzbekistan to China", which was signed by the State Inspectorate for Plant Quarantine of Uzbekistan and the General Customs Department of the PRC with the active assistance of the Uzbek diplomatic mission in Beijing in 2018.

The signing of this Protocol opened up new opportunities for entrepreneurs of Uzbekistan to further increase the export of green mung bean to China. Meanwhile, for Uzbek farmers, this has become a new source of income from the supply of their products to the Chinese market.

At the same time, products exported from Uzbekistan to China must meet sanitary and hygienic standards, phytosanitary rules and requirements provided for in the Protocol. In this regard, over the past three years, the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Beijing has actively assisted Uzgoskarantin in the formation and approval of a list of suppliers in the relevant departments of the PRC.

Uzbek producers of mung bean also imported the necessary calibration and purification equipment, installed modern laboratories. Thus, the technological modernization of the production base of entrepreneurs in Uzbekistan was carried out, which made it possible to expand the list of exporters of green mung bean to the PRC. In February 2021, the number of Uzbek manufacturers that gained access to the Chinese market increased to 54.