Independent Uzbekistan: How the Country’s Retail Market Has Changed Over 34 Years
Since independence, Uzbekistan’s population has nearly doubled — from 20.6 million people in 1991 to 37.5–38 million today. Trade has grown alongside the people: from a system of total shortages and rationed distribution to a market with an annual retail turnover exceeding 480 trillion soums, dozens of federal and local retail chains, and marketplaces whose revenue is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. Here is how this market has evolved — stage by stage, format by format, in numbers.
1. The Soviet Legacy: Shortages, Rationing, Queues
Before 1991, retail trade in the Uzbek SSR was part of a centralized planned system: assortment, prices, and supply volumes were determined not by demand but by the state plan. Chronic shortages of goods were the norm — many categories of goods (household appliances, furniture, quality clothing) were distributed through ration coupons, waiting lists, and closed supply channels for select groups of the population. To “obtain” a product was effectively synonymous with buying it. Private trade in the modern sense was virtually non-existent — the only legal alternative to state trade was collective-farm markets and consumer cooperatives, which sold mostly agricultural produce.
This shortage-based model defined the starting conditions from which the market would have to build itself from scratch after 1991.
2. The 1990s: Shock Privatization and the Rise of Spontaneous Trade
With the declaration of independence came the denationalization and privatization of trade enterprises — the state gradually handed retail outlets over to private owners. Yet full market liberalization took not years but decades: until 2017, the country pursued a policy of active protectionism and strict currency controls that limited free imports and competition.
Under these conditions, bazaars became the de facto core of the country’s consumer market — more flexible than directive state trade, quicker to adapt to shifts in supply and demand, and the main channel for both imported and domestically produced goods throughout the entire post-Soviet period.
3. The Bazaar as an Institution That Never Disappeared
Unlike many post-Soviet countries, where open-air and wholesale markets had largely lost ground by the 2010s, in Uzbekistan the bazaar remains a backbone format of trade. Chorsu in Tashkent is a market with more than two thousand years of history at the crossroads of the Great Silk Road; the Alaysky bazaar emerged on the site of traditional trading grounds where merchants from across the region had gathered for centuries. Both remain among the capital’s largest trading venues to this day.
Even in 2024–2025, according to INFOLine estimates, traditional trade (bazaars and unorganized retail) accounts for roughly 84–85% of the country’s retail turnover, against 13–16% for modern formats. By comparison, in neighboring Kazakhstan the share held by markets is lower — around 58%, while shopping malls hold about 30%. This is one of the key structural differences between Uzbekistan’s retail sector and the rest of Central Asia.
4. 1996–2016: The First Shoots of Modern Retail
The country’s first modern-format supermarket opened back in 1996 — Anglesey Food began operating as a neighborhood convenience-store chain, and in 2005 the chain was rebranded as Korzinka.uz (simply Korzinka since 2021). This is generally regarded as the starting point of modern chain retail in Uzbekistan.
Growth, however, was slow: strict currency controls limited chains’ ability to import equipment, goods, and technology. By 2010, a second major player had emerged — the Makro chain, which by 2018 had grown to 54 stores across 18 cities. But on the whole, until the mid-2010s, modern retail remained a niche phenomenon concentrated in Tashkent and aimed mainly at the middle class.
5. 2017: The Turning Point
Presidential Decree No. UP-5177 of 2 September 2017, “On Priority Measures for Liberalizing Currency Policy,” abolished the system of multiple exchange rates and introduced current-account convertibility. This decision became the key trigger for the entire subsequent retail boom: free access to foreign currency allowed businesses to directly import equipment, goods, and franchises, and allowed foreign chains to enter the Uzbek market without the previous currency barriers. The currency reform was followed by lower customs barriers (2017–2018), banking-sector reform, and a radical tax reform in 2019.
6. 2018–2024: The Chain-Retail and Shopping-Mall Boom
After liberalization, the market began growing at an explosive pace. According to Makro’s own data, modern retail grew by an average of 17% a year between 2015 and 2021. New players entered the market one after another:
- Magnum — Kazakhstan’s largest retailer, which opened its first hypermarket in Tashkent in December 2021;
- Havas and Baraka Market — new local chains that followed Korzinka and Makro onto the market;
- Fix Price — the Russian “fixed-price store” format, which by 2021 had opened 46 outlets in Tashkent with no direct competitors in its segment;
Alongside grocery retail, the shopping-mall market also saw explosive growth. A landmark project was Tashkent City Mall — the first venue in the country to host international brands such as Zara, H&M, Massimo Dutti, and Pull&Bear. According to CMWP Uzbekistan, new quality gross leasable area (GLA) added in Tashkent in 2024 totaled 478,500 square meters — 3.5 times more than in 2019 — while rental rates rose from $24 to $41 per square meter over five years.
7. Retail Today: The Numbers for 2025–2026
According to the National Statistics Committee, retail turnover in Uzbekistan for January–September 2025 reached 316.4 trillion soums (about $27.5 billion), up 11% in comparable prices. For the full year 2025, the figure reached 482.4 trillion soums — up 11.2% year on year. According to Infoline, in 2025 the combined retail turnover of all Central Asian countries exceeded $100 billion for the first time, with Uzbekistan’s retail growth rate outpacing both Kazakhstan and Russia.
The market’s structure, however, remains fragmented: as of 1 August 2025, there were 86,243 commercial retail trade enterprises in the country, of which only 352 were classified as large — the overwhelming majority of the market is made up of small businesses and private entrepreneurs (over 74% of turnover).
The share of modern trade (chain supermarkets, hypermarkets, shopping malls) rose from 6–8% in 2020–2021 to 13–16% in 2024–2025 — roughly doubling in five years — though by the standards of benchmark countries, Uzbekistan’s market still lags 10–15 years behind in modern-format penetration.
8. The Digital Revolution: E-Commerce and Fintech
While offline retail took three decades to transform, e-commerce in Uzbekistan is a story of the last five years. The e-commerce market grew from $201 million in 2021 to $543 million in 2023, while the number of online trading platforms rose from 36 in 2024 to 115 in 2025 — a 3.2-fold increase — with online sales turnover reaching 22.7 trillion soums and e-commerce’s share of total retail turnover climbing to 4.6%. The National Agency for Prospective Projects forecasts that combined marketplace turnover could reach $1 billion by 2027.
The key player has been the Uzum ecosystem, founded in 2022: for full-year 2025 its revenue reached $691 million and net profit $176 million, with roughly 20 million residents of the country using the holding’s services monthly. Russia’s Ozon entered the market in 2023, building out its own logistics infrastructure for local businesses; Wildberries, Yandex services, and food-delivery apps (Wolt, Yandex Eda) also maintain a strong presence. The number of self-employed individuals involved in online trade rose from 402,800 in 2024 to 514,900 in 2025.
E-commerce growth is closely tied to the expansion of cashless payments. Click, Payme, and Uzcard have in recent years become the basic infrastructure of everyday transactions, and Presidential Decree No. UP-246 of 10 December 2025 is explicitly aimed at further expanding cashless payments in trade, cafes, and services, with the goal of shrinking the shadow economy.
9. What This Means for Brands, Distributors, and Suppliers
The main practical takeaway for FMCG players: in Uzbekistan, modern, traditional, and online channels are not replacing one another — they coexist, and will continue to coexist for at least the next decade. The bazaar and small-format retail outlet remain the primary channel for reaching the population (over 80% of turnover), but it is modern trade and e-commerce that today deliver the fastest growth and the highest margins for brands. This makes multichannel distribution — simultaneous operation across Modern Trade, Traditional Trade, HoReCa, and e-commerce — not an option but a necessary condition for any manufacturer planning long-term growth in Uzbekistan.
10. Where the Market Is Heading
Three trends will define the next decade of Uzbek retail:
- Gradual, not rapid, consolidation — the share of modern trade will likely continue growing by 1.5–2 percentage points a year, but the full displacement of bazaars is unlikely in the medium term, given demographics (population still growing at over 2% a year) and the price sensitivity of the mass consumer.
- Accelerating digitalization — at current rates, e-commerce’s share of retail could rise from today’s ~4.6% to 10–15% within five years, while cashless payment volumes continue to grow amid regulatory pressure from the state.
- Continued expansion by foreign chains — the arrival of Carrefour, Magnum, Fix Price, and Ozon over the past five years is unlikely to be the last wave: a growing market of nearly 38 million people with low penetration of modern formats remains an attractive growth opportunity for regional and global players.