Exporting Uzbek licorice root and extract to Europe: the ochratoxin documentation that decides whether a shipment clears
Uzbekistan is a genuinely major player in world licorice, not a marginal one - it ranked second globally by value and first by volume in licorice extract exports in 2023, ahead of long-established suppliers. Almost none of that trade currently reaches Europe: China took close to 90% of it. That gap looks less like a closed door and more like an open one nobody has walked through yet, especially given that the Netherlands consumes more licorice per person than any country on earth and doubles as a re-export hub for the rest of the continent.
Four ways Uzbek licorice actually ships
| Format | How it's packed | When it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Pressed root bales | dried root pressed into packs of roughly 100-150kg, dimensions around 60x80x60cm, bound with wire or tape | the standard bulk format for buyers processing or extracting further downstream |
| Bulk dried root in moisture-resistant bags | cleaned, sorted and cut root, moisture reduced to export-safe levels, packed in food-grade moisture-resistant or jute bags | for buyers who don't need pressed bales and want flexible bag handling |
| Thick extract | concentrated extract at roughly 32-38% humidity, minimum 14% glycyrrhizic acid, drummed or bulk-packed to regional technical standards | for confectionery and pharmaceutical buyers who need the extract, not the raw root |
| Retail-grade sealed pouches | smaller-format root or extract in airtight, moisture-proof retail packaging | for specialty, health-food or direct-to-consumer buyers rather than bulk industrial ones |
None of these four formats is a matter of preference - a buyer expecting thick extract for a confectionery line and receiving pressed root instead has bought the wrong product entirely, not just the wrong package.
Uzbekistan is a real, verifiable player in world licorice - and China buys nearly all of it
The scale here is easy to underestimate: in 2023, Uzbekistan ranked second in the world by value ($26.85 million) and first by volume (just over 6.1 million kg) in exports of licorice sap and extract, sitting just behind France and ahead of China as an exporter - a position confirmed independently across UN Comtrade data and a 2025 peer-reviewed trade review. That's the extract and sap category specifically; Uzbekistan's standing as a raw-root exporter is less precisely documented, with only lower-confidence trade-aggregator sources placing it among the top few suppliers alongside India and Kazakhstan.
Almost all of that extract currently goes one direction: China took roughly 89% of Uzbekistan's licorice extract exports by value in 2023, with the remainder spread thinly across France, Israel, Japan, Hong Kong, the US, Russia, Jordan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Europe's share of that remainder is small enough to barely register - which says more about where the trade has historically concentrated than about any EU barrier standing in the way.
The market most exporters don't expect: the Netherlands and its licorice habit
The country that stands out on the demand side is one most exporters wouldn't guess first: the Netherlands has the highest per-capita licorice consumption on earth, at roughly 2kg per person a year, feeding a domestic "drop" candy market worth around €140 million annually and consuming some 33.6 million kg of licorice confectionery - over a fifth of all candy sold in the country. The Netherlands is also a confirmed re-export hub, sending licorice extract on to buyers elsewhere in Europe, which makes it both a destination market and a gateway to the rest of the continent in the same shipment.
Karakalpakstan's wild licorice: a conservation story as much as a trade one
Karakalpakstan, in western Uzbekistan, is where much of the country's wild licorice has traditionally been harvested - and the region's wild habitat has shrunk dramatically, from roughly 38,000 hectares in the 1960s to around 6,500 hectares by 2020, a decline driven by unregulated harvesting pressure rather than any single event. That's prompted a real response rather than just concern: the FairWild Foundation, Germany's GIZ development agency and TRAFFIC ran a sustainable wild-harvest and certification initiative across Karakalpakstan and Khorezm in Uzbekistan and neighbouring oblasts in Kazakhstan, training harvesters, processors and companies in 2022, while Uzbekistan's own government has moved in parallel, directing cultivation and deep-processing investment into Karakalpakstan specifically rather than leaving the industry dependent on wild stands indefinitely - a policy shift toward growing licorice as a managed crop, not just gathering it, that mirrors what's happened with cotton and other commodities in the country over the past decade.
Ochratoxin A, not aflatoxin: the EU's real documentation concern for licorice
Separately from all of that, both root and extract shipments have to clear a documentation threshold that's genuinely different from most other dried botanicals: EU regulation sets ochratoxin A limits specific to licorice - 20 micrograms per kilogram for root, 50 for extract-based confectionery containing 97% or more licorice extract - well above the general 10 microgram baseline that applies to most dried herbs, because licorice carries a known, elevated background risk for this particular contaminant.
That's a deliberate regulatory design choice, not an oversight: the EU's own food safety authority flagged licorice-containing products among the categories with the highest measured ochratoxin A concentrations in its 2020 reassessment, and specifically named the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and Denmark - the heaviest licorice-confectionery markets - as facing elevated dietary exposure from licorice sweets in particular. Aflatoxin, the contaminant that dominates conversations about many other dried products, simply isn't the primary concern here.
What we check before a licorice shipment leaves
| Check | What it confirms | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Ochratoxin A level checked against the licorice-specific EU limit | the OTA result verified against 20 ug/kg for root or 50 ug/kg for extract-based confectionery, not the general 10 ug/kg dried-herb baseline | licorice carries its own, higher category-specific OTA limits precisely because of its known elevated contamination risk |
| Moisture content controlled and documented before export | dried root reduced to and verified at export-safe moisture levels, with the figure recorded, not assumed | low, controlled moisture is the standard defence against the mold growth that produces ochratoxin A in storage and transit |
| Product form matched to the correct tariff classification | root shipments and extract shipments checked against their distinct HS codes and the paperwork that follows from each | buyers, documentation and even the EU contaminant limit itself differ between raw root and extract - conflating the two causes its own problems |
| CITES documentation confirmed as unnecessary before a buyer asks | licorice's status outside any CITES appendix checked and ready to state, rather than scrambling to explain it after a buyer's compliance team raises the question | some buyers default to asking for CITES paperwork on any wild-harvested botanical; having the answer ready avoids a needless delay |
None of these four checks is paperwork for its own sake - each is the specific point where a shipment that's physically fine on arrival still gets flagged, delayed or rejected because the documentation didn't anticipate the question a buyer or inspector was always going to ask.
What goes wrong without a controlled process
Most of what actually disrupts a licorice shipment traces back to a handful of specific, recurring gaps rather than a dramatic failure at the border:
- Ochratoxin A tested against the general dried-herb limit instead of licorice's own - a result that would pass the general 10 ug/kg baseline can still fail the correct 20 or 50 ug/kg licorice-specific limit depending on product form
- Moisture level not documented at the point of export - a shipment can look fine on arrival and still raise questions later if there's no recorded moisture figure tying it to safe, controlled drying
- Root and extract paperwork conflated - a buyer expecting one HS code and one set of documentation receives a shipment built around the other product's classification
- CITES status not addressed proactively - a buyer's compliance team asks for documentation that doesn't exist because it isn't required, and the shipment stalls while someone explains why
- Wild-harvest sourcing assumed automatically unsustainable by an EU buyer - without pointing to the FairWild/GIZ certification work actually underway in the sourcing region, a legitimate supply chain reads as a red flag it doesn't deserve
- Pricing and product form treated as interchangeable across grades - a shipment quoted and packed as commodity-grade root arrives when the buyer expected the premium grade the price implied
None of this requires guesswork - it requires checking the ochratoxin result, the moisture record and the product classification against what the specific shipment actually is before it leaves, not after a buyer's lab or a customs inspector does it instead.
Root or extract - getting the product form and paperwork to match
Root and extract aren't interchangeable products wearing different packaging - they carry different HS codes, attract different buyers, and even face different regulatory limits for the same contaminant, so a shipment has to be built around which one it actually is from the start, not adjusted after the fact when a buyer's paperwork doesn't match what arrived.
Development prospects
Uzbekistan's licorice-product export value has been targeted for real growth under government policy - from roughly $29 million toward a stated goal near $62 million - alongside a global licorice market that industry estimates put in the range of $650-700 million today and forecast to approach $1.2 billion within the next several years, driven by steady demand across confectionery, pharmaceutical and tobacco-flavoring uses. Pricing itself varies enormously by grade and origin, from under a dollar a kilogram for lower-grade root-derived powder to $7 or more for premium grades - a spread that rewards getting the product form, documentation and destination market matched correctly rather than treating licorice as a single undifferentiated commodity.
In short
Getting Uzbek licorice root or extract into the EU starts with knowing which product you're actually shipping and which ochratoxin limit applies to it - confirm the OTA result and moisture record before the truck leaves, match the tariff code to the product form, and have the CITES answer ready before a buyer asks. Tell us what you're shipping and where it's headed, and we'll set out exactly what applies.
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