Silverleafe exec receives Uzbek Order of Friendship
23/08/2022
Commenting on the news, Uzbekistan’s ambassador to the US, Canada and Brazil, Javlon Vakhabov (pictured, left), said that the honour made Mr Patterson the first foreign-born entrepreneur to have ever been bestowed with the award.
After accepting an invitation to visit Uzbekistan by the country's government in 2018, Mr Patterson and brother-in-law Martin Walker became involved in supporting modernisation efforts across the Uzbek agricultural sector. Work to implement “Western farming practices” subsequently began the same year, with Silverleafe International also benefitting from a presidential decree and land grant in Pakhtakor, Jizzakh, that November.
Mr Patterson was a speaker during a Kingpins24 Global panel discussion on the subject of Uzbek cotton last October, roughly five months prior to the Cotton Campaign’s cessation of its boycott of the fibre in March. Members of his family were involved in the nation's cotton industry back in the 1930s, 1970s and 1990s.
Today, Silverleafe International specialises in raw cotton fibre, of which it produces roughly 26,000 tonnes annually. According to its website, the company sources its cotton from its own 2,000-hectare farm, as well as from neighbouring growers’ combined 9,200 hectares of land.
Ambassador Vakhabov offered his sincere congratulations to Mr Patterson, the Patterson family and the wider Silverleafe International team via social media, calling such top-level recognition well-deserved.
Credit: Javlon Vakhabov.
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