Uzbek President Orders Abolition Of State Cotton Quotas
09/03/2020
Abolishing the quotas is hoped to help end the country’s ongoing problem with forced labour, activists have said. The decree was signed by Mr Mirziyoev on March 6 and cancels quotas for the cultivation and sale of cotton.
Obligations on farmers to participate in cotton production will also be dropped, which is said to free them up to plant other cash crops.
The report said cotton exports as a major source of Uzbekistan’s revenue dates back to the Soviet era. Mandatory production quotas are said to have led to labour abuses, including children forced to pick cotton.
The Cotton Campaign, an international coalition of rights groups, has spent years lobbying Uzbekistan’s government on this issue while also pressuring clothing brands not to use cotton picked by forced labour.
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