As in China and India, the state has a monopoly over silk production in Uzbekistan, although the bulk of the production and weaving is carried out in small, family-run businesses. A fine example and one we love to take our clients to is the Yogdorlik Silk Workshop near the town of Margilan in the Fergana Valley. Here, around 85 workers are employed (the majority of them women) to extract, spin, dye, wind and weave the silk into a variety of sumptuous garments.

You can see the whole process from start to finish, beginning with the room where the cocoons are boiled to unravel the silk thread, and ending in the wonderful shop, where beautiful ‘khan-atlas’, ‘adras’, ‘shoyi’ and other styles of woven silk are offered for sale.

Margilan and the Fergana Valley may be included on any of our tailor-made tours to Uzbekistan. Contact one of our specialist consultants at the TransIndus office in London for more details.