The majority of employees in the Akhal oil mill were forced to take unpaid leaves in mid August. The plant has had no supply of raw materials cotton seeds and for this reason the unpaid leave of staff has been extended until the middle of October.
Correspondents of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan” report that in order not to fully curtail the plant operations some employees are being involved in the process of additional purifying and packaging cotton seed oil, produced at the Bairamali factory. The oil is sold under the brand “Akhal”.
The quality of cotton seed oil “Ak Pamyk” produced at the Bairamali factory is quite low.Due to a shortage of the required ingredients, such as food gas, the oil is not purified as needed.
The oil is of dark colour and has unpleasant smell and poor quality flavor and taste.However, since no alternative, primarily in terms of the price, is available, the oil is sold at the price of 20 manats per a 5 liter bottle.
Let us recall that the cotton harvesting campaign was officially launched on 11 September in Akhal, Balkan and Mary velayat and on 18 September in Dashoguz velayat.
This year Turkmenistan intends to produce 1 million 50 thousand tons of cotton.In 2020 the cotton yield plan is scheduled to be increased to 1 million 250 thousand tons.
According to sources of “Chronicles of Turkmenistan”, in 2018 Turkmenistan harvested half of the projected volume of cotton.