Uzbekistan's exports to Hong Kong increased 22-fold and reached $716 million. Why?

Uzbekistan's exports to Hong Kong increased 22-fold, reaching $716 million. What is the reason behind this?

Uzbekistan's exports to Hong Kong in January–July 2026 amounted to approximately 716 million dollars, which is 22 times more than in the same period last year ($32.5 million). This is evidenced by data from the National Statistics Committee, which was reviewed by "Gazeta".

In April, the export volume reached 110.3 million dollars against 6.1 million dollars a year earlier — approximately 18 times more.

In May, the figure rose to 147.7 million dollars, which was approximately 27 times higher than the result of May 2025. In June, a then-monthly record was recorded — 157.9 million dollars, more than 23 times higher than last year's level.

The growth continued in July: for the month, exports to Hong Kong amounted to about 172.9 million dollars against 5.7 million dollars in July 2025 — more than 30 times more. This is a new monthly high since the beginning of the year.

As a result, Hong Kong maintained its sixth position among Uzbekistan's largest individual export markets, ahead of Turkey and Kyrgyzstan. It accounted for about 3.6% of the country's total exports over the seven months.

During January–July, shipments to Hong Kong grew by approximately 683.5 million dollars in absolute terms. This is one of the largest increases among Uzbekistan's individual partner countries.

For comparison, exports to China during this period increased by approximately 405 million (+31.4%) — to 1.7 billion dollars, to Afghanistan — by 369 million (+51.1%, $1.1 billion), to Russia — by 355 million dollars (+14.4%, $2.8 billion).

At the same time, Uzbekistan's total exports for the seven months amounted to about 19.9 billion dollars and remained 3.6% below last year's level. July itself, on the contrary, turned out to be strong: exports grew by about 24% in annual terms — to 4.1 billion dollars.

The sharp increase in shipments coincided with an increase in exports of jewelry products from Uzbekistan and the intensification of cooperation with Hong Kong in the gold trade.

The Ministry of Investment, Industry and Trade reported that for January–June, exports of jewelry from Uzbekistan reached 685 million dollars — 2.8 times more than in the same period last year.

According to the platform, among the largest suppliers were Luxury Diamond, Goldwish (Vosiq Doda), Fatih Jewellery, Global Universal Servis, Vostok Jewellery, SM Newgroup, and East Jewellery.

The three largest companies — Luxury Diamond, Goldwish, and Fatih Jewellery — accounted for about 66% of the shipment volume reflected by Market Inside.

The growth in exports is taking place against the background of intensifying economic contacts between Uzbekistan and Hong Kong. In June, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, John Lee Ka-chiu, visited Tashkent at the head of a business delegation and, at meetings with the country's leadership, proposed expanding cooperation in the gold trade.

According to him, Hong Kong is establishing an international gold trading center with infrastructure for storage, clearing, and delivery of physical metal, while Uzbekistan possesses significant production volumes and gold reserves.

"I would also like to suggest that we cooperate in the gold trade, as Uzbekistan produces significant volumes of gold and has large gold reserves, and Hong Kong is rapidly developing its gold trading market," John Lee said.

Hong Kong is not the only destination with abnormally high dynamics in 2026.

Uzbekistan's exports to Ireland in January–July grew from approximately 1.2 million to 82.4 million dollars — almost 68-fold. The abnormal growth in exports was mainly formed due to February, when shipments reached 56.7 million dollars — about 69% of the entire volume for the seven months. Another 10.3 million dollars was accounted for in June.

Separately, in July, a sharp jump was noted in trade with Morocco and Taiwan.

Exports to Morocco amounted to about 15.1 million dollars against less than 100 thousand dollars in July last year, that is, they grew more than 160-fold.

Shipments to Taiwan increased from approximately 45 thousand to 14.6 million dollars — more than 300-fold.

Such high growth rates in these directions are largely explained by the extremely low base of last year.