East Kazakhstan enterprises are ready to cover the country's needs for sunflower oil

Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration Serik Zhumangarin visited the East Kazakhstan region. Within the framework of the working trip, the Deputy Prime Minister met with agricultural entrepreneurs, associations, residents of the region, visited farms and farms in the districts of the region, got acquainted with the projects-applicants for inclusion in the pool of the so-called Big Project (preferential financing of farm construction based on the experience of the North Kazakhstan Region).

The East Kazakhstan region is known for its developed industry and crop production. The region, richly endowed with natural wealth and boundless fields, holds great potential for the development of agriculture. Already this year, a powerful hub with cross-docking, vegetable storages, a hotel, a canteen, a veterinary laboratory and a place of customs control is planned to be put into operation in the region. At the first stage, in August of this year, it is planned to put into operation two vegetable storages with an area of 10 thousand square meters each, for the wholesale distribution center «Altai». According to the director of Wholesale distribution centers Zhanbolat Kazanov, the facility is already 80% ready.

At the second stage, in 2024, facilities for the production of meat, fish, milk, honey packaging, a bakery per ton of bread per day will be built. As the akim of the East Kazakhstan region Danial Akhmetov noted, the company plans to purchase and export honey, the quality of which meets international standards.

In Ust-Kamenogorsk, Serik Zhumangarin visited a supermarket of a large retail chain, where he got acquainted with the prices and assortment of socially significant goods presented. The next point of the visit was the village of Predgornoye, Glubokovsky district. Last year, the technical launch of the plant for the production of vegetable oils of «Altyn Shyghys» LLP — sunflower, rapeseed, flax, safflower and soy was carried out here. In 2022, the creamery has already produced 58 thousand tons of oil. The plans for the coming years are to supply equipment for deep processing, a refining workshop. The start of work is scheduled for 2026. According to the director of the enterprise, Yerbol Abdykalykov, after the launch of refining, the capacity of which will be up to 500 tons per day, Kazakhstan will be fully provided with refined sunflower oil of its own production.

Here at the plant Serik Zhumangarin listened to the problematic issues of agricultural producers. Evgeny Kasatkin, Director of the cereal processing enterprise «Vertex Vosto»k», LLP, raised the issue of the possibility of supporting the processing of buckwheat.

«In East Kazakhstan region and Pavlodar region, due to a shortage of buckwheat grain, peasant farms have been sowing insufficient acreage of this crop for four years. Farms have raw materials, but now the price for it has fallen, and they do not want to sell lower than last season. As a result, our enterprises have stopped and are incurring losses. To compete with producers from other countries, we need to buy raw materials cheaper. Due to the value added tax on imports and logistics, buckwheat raw materials become expensive and not competitive. Temporary exemption from value added tax on imports would give us the opportunity to purchase raw materials and work. The finished products would be competitive in price», — he said.

General Director of «Astana Business» Agroholding Farid Abitaev is engaged in the selection and production of sunflower seeds.

«After the introduction of the export duty on sunflower, breeding seeds fell under the same code of the Commodity Nomenclature of foreign economic activity with commercial sunflower. Although they are not commercial products. Our company is the only one in Kazakhstan specializing in the production of selective sunflower seeds. Over 10 years of operation, seed sales have grown 15 times. The first year they started exporting seeds to Russia, the first batch was shipped to Germany this year. I would like to understand whether it is possible to bring breeding seeds into a separate code for the possibility of export without duty», — the entrepreneur said.

Serik Zhumangarin promised to study all the issues raised at the meeting and give instructions to work out.

At the commodity-dairy farm «Rulikha» of the Shemonaikhinsky district, the Deputy Prime Minister got acquainted with the projects that are candidates for the pool of the region for future preferential financing as part of replicating the experience of the North Kazakhstan Region in financing large investment projects in the agro-industrial complex. These are the construction of an egg poultry farm, which still does not exist in the region, dairy farms, enterprises for the production of breeding stock of dairy cows, irrigation projects and the construction of a vegetable storage. For his part, Serik Zhumangarin once again stressed the main goal of the future Large Project — to ensure full import substitution of the country for basic foodstuffs.

If the enterprises join the pool and receive state support, the business community will make reciprocal commitments to saturate the domestic market first of all, and then will supply the surplus for export.