An astronomical mountain of bread

Marufjon Raimbaev is pleased. "This is our first time at the International Green Week and it's going really well for us," says the marketing consultant of Asl Oyna LLC, the leading manufacturer of glass containers in the Central Asia region. Asl Oyna also offers coating, screen printing, hot foil stamping and UV printing of glass bottles and other glass containers. "We have found new partners in Poland, Georgia and the Netherlands," Raimbaev says. Now he is just making his way to their booths with gift bags.

For his business talks, Raimbaev mostly used the restaurant in the Uzbek joint stand. The artfully ornamented columns and the blue carpet convey a sense of calm, while the white bistro tables offer plenty of space, both for business meetings and for a short break on the way through the packed halls.

Not empty-handed

Here, trade fair guests can enjoy Plov, an original oriental rice dish with raisins, carrots and chickpeas. There will also be tea and Uzbek bread. The decorative ceremonial tower of Uzbek bread provides the focal point of the booth. Above it hangs a painting depicting a replica of Ulugh Beg amid mountains of bread. The grandson of Timur the Great, one of the great conquerors of Central Asia, is greatly revered in Uzbekistan. The astronomer, to whom the quote is attributed: "Religions disperse like mist, the tsarist empires destroy themselves, but the works of the scholar remain for all time," opened a space observatory in 1424, two kilometers from the center of the Uzbek city of Samarkand. Today you can still find the ruins of the observatory and a museum there.

Ulug Begh, who is affectionately called "our grandfather", can be bought at the stand of Uzbekistan as a small figurine, as well as the bread, which has a special meaning in Uzbekistan: Uzbek bread is offered especially often at the entrances of towns, because when visiting friends, acquaintances or relatives, one does not appear empty-handed. While the hosts are already putting on fresh tea, the guests bring back fresh bread from their journey - just as Marufjon Raimbaev is doing now on his way to Georgia (Hall 11.2), Poland (Hall 11.2) and the Netherlands (Hall 18).

Interested trade fair visitors will find the Uzbekistan stand in Hall 8.2.