A word of caution first
This article is not legal advice. Laws change, and practice differs from district to district. What follows is the general picture drawn from official sources. Confirm every step with your district hokimiyat and the district veterinary office.
A dehqon farm — the simplest route
For a small farm, the most convenient form is registering a dehqon xo‘jaligi (a household farm). The key points:
- Registration is free and takes about half an hour; registering without creating a legal entity is simpler.
- By law, income from selling agricultural produce grown on your own farm is not taxed.
- With an extract from the register you can transport your own produce anywhere in the country and sell it without extra permits.
- You pay land tax, water tax and social tax for the head of the farm, and file an annual declaration by 15 March.
- Light structures are allowed, but check with the hokimiyat before you build a shed for cages.
Self-employed status does not work for rabbits: the shortened list of permitted activities in force from 1 January 2026 includes neither rabbit rearing nor meat selling.
Why home-slaughtered meat cannot be sold
This is the biggest constraint for a small farm. Under Article 23 of the Law on Veterinary Medicine, livestock must be slaughtered at specialised facilities with veterinary-sanitary documents. Under Article 18, animals and animal products may be traded only with the permission of the state veterinary service, in designated places. Technical Regulation UzTR.36-030:2018 explicitly covers rabbits: veterinary inspection before and after slaughter is mandatory.
The regulation excludes products made for personal use with no intent to sell. So slaughtering a rabbit for your own table is fine; slaughtering at home to sell is not. At a market, meat is sold after a second check and stamp by the market vet, from an equipped meat stall. A state review found that 30 markets in the country have no veterinary laboratory and 88 have no meat pavilion, so conditions vary a lot by district.
Note: sources disagree on whether this regulation still applies in its original form. Ask the veterinary office what the current requirement is.
Selling live or selling meat
Selling live rabbits avoids the slaughter and meat-trade rules: the buyer does the slaughtering. That is why many small farms sell live animals — to other keepers, to beginners, or to families who slaughter for themselves.
Selling meat requires an approved slaughter point and veterinary documents. The law also provides for a small "slaughter ground" sized for 5–7 animals a day, but it needs a permit from local authorities and a veterinary-sanitary conclusion.
What to ask the veterinary office
Before you buy your first rabbit, visit the district veterinary office and ask:
- Where is the nearest approved slaughter point, and does it take rabbits?
- Where, and with which documents, can rabbit meat be sold?
- What is the rabbit disease situation locally, and which vaccines are available?
- Do I need papers to bring live rabbits from another district?
- Do the new animal identification rules apply to rabbits?
Halal marking and state support
Halal certification is voluntary and not required for selling inside the country. Mikrokreditbank still lists rabbit farming as a concessional credit line, and it is worth asking in your mahalla about the "Har bir oila — tadbirkor", "Yoshlar daftari" and "Temir daftar" programmes. But a loan is debt. Borrowing for a farm with no clear route to buyers is risky.
Common beginner mistake: planning to "slaughter at home and sell to neighbours and at the bazaar". First find out where you can slaughter and how you can sell legally — your whole farm model depends on it.
