Paper abstract:

This research explores the specifics of informality, Uzbek societies' trust and reciprocity practices, and how social norms, trust and debt-based trade serve as an alternative means of doing business in Ferghana Valley, in the specific case of rassiychilar. Debt-based trade and economic exchanges are becoming more and more widespread phenomena in the context of most post-Soviet Central Asian societies, especially in Uzbekistan. In the absence of viable state economic support, a functional banking system and an effective legal system, trust-based economic exchanges serve as an alternative means for conducting micro-level businesses in Uzbekistan. This debt-based trade in the example of agriculture involves a myriad of informal economic exchanges among various actors (1) rassiychilar, that is, micro-level entrepreneurs who export Uzbek agricultural products to Russian markets; (2) dehqonlar, that is, local farmers who produce agricultural products in their land and then sell them to brokers; (3) brokerlar, brokers or middleman who buy agricultural products from dehqonlar, and then resell to rassiychilar; (4) fura arendatorlari, that is, local wealthy businessmen who rent large trucks to rassiychilar, and (5) truck drivers, who drives local wealthy businessmen’s trucks to Russia and help to facilitate the business of rassiychilar. The phenomenon of rassiychilar, which is the central focus of this research, is one of the intriguing examples of debt-based trade in rural Fergana, Uzbekistan.