The government issued a resolution of July 7 requiring Xalq Bank, Microcreditbank, Turonbank and Alokabank to allocate 500 billion soums of credit funds to support agricultural cooperatives before the year-end.

The funds are intended for firms in 30 districts of Uzbekistan, which will cooperatively produce fish farming, rabbit breeding, livestock farming, poultry farming, beekeeping goods on the lands of farms and household plots, as well as purchase the manufactured goods.

Loans shall be provided to SMEs in the following sizes, depending on the number of entered into cooperation agreements with the unemployed or individuals wishing to increase their income:

• up to 1 billion soums — for enterprises that have entered into up to 30 agreements;
• up to 3 billion soums — for enterprises that have entered into from 31 to 100 agreements;
• up to 5 billion soums — for enterprises that have entered into more than 100 agreements.

The Entrepreneurship Development Company will compensate part of the interest expenses.

One cooperation agreement is entered into with each individual. The unemployed must be registered in the established manner as business entities, farms or the self-employed.

A mandatory condition is the purchase of goods manufactured (grown) by the individual or the payment of a monthly salary to him under the agreement.

The Agricultural cooperatives law was signed by the president in 2024. The Law has defined an agricultural cooperative as an independent commercial organization based on share principles, a voluntary association of individuals and (or) legal entities to carry out agricultural activities.

The main goal of such cooperatives is to pool resources and efforts to improve production efficiency, reduce costs and increase the income of cooperative members.

An agricultural cooperative shall be created comprising at least seven individuals and (or) legal entities. A joint cooperative may also be created consisting of at least three cooperatives.