The Ulyanovsk-based automaker said in a statement that it had shipped more than 2,000 units of its Hunter model to the war-torn country since the start of the year and plans to sell "several thousand more" in 2004.
"The agreement does not specify concrete figures for the orders, but the criteria is for around 1,000 off-roaders per month," UAZ sales director Andrei Dorofeyev said in an e-mail interview from the company's headquarters.
So far this year, the United Nations Development Program has awarded some $3.3 million in contracts to UAZ, according to the web site of the UNDP's Inter-Agency Procurement Services Office.
These contracts include the Hunters themselves as well as spare parts for the vehicles, which are used by UN programs in the U.S. occupied nation.
The jeeps, which retail in Russia for around $6,500, are a cheap source of transport well-suited to rugged regions.
UAZ said last month that it had sold $2.5 million worth of Hunters to an unidentified buyer in Iraq that were earmarked for Iraqi security personnel.
Last year, the UN awarded nearly $6 million worth of contracts to UAZ, according to the UNDP/IAPSO web site, casting Toyota away as its favorite transport supplier in the Central Asian nation.
Toyota, which was awarded $1.1 million worth of UN contracts for Afghanistan last year, has received none so far this year.
"The reality is that Toyota has no presence in Afghanistan, no workshops or after-sales services. Buyers have to maintain them themselves ... it's a very complicated machine," Neil Donovan, manager of automotive products for the UNDP/IAPSO, said by telephone from Copenhagen, Denmark.
"Because of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, UAZ's vehicles are well-known there and are easy to repair for a local mechanic, which is one of the reasons they were selected," Donovan said.
UAZ isn't the only Russian automaker enjoying the patronage of the New York-headquarted global body.
KamAZ, the nation's largest truck producer, had sales worth $2 million through the international organization last year.
Donovan said most of the Hunter jeeps would be used by local personnel in the UN's voter registration program. Afghanistan is scheduled to have its first elections in three decades in September.
No non-Afghans working for the UN, however, will be using the Russian jeeps, he said.
"Most foreign UN personnel drive Japanese cars."
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