The government managed to stop the growth of prices for basic foodstuffs: over the past 7 weeks, it has not exceeded 0.1%

Today, the Central Communications Service under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan held a briefing on the development of domestic trade. The briefing was attended by First Vice Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Arman Shakkaliyev and Acting Chairman of the Trade Committee of the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Aidar Abildabekov.

Speaking with the report, First Vice Minister of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan Arman Shakkaliyev noted that trade ranks second in the structure of gross domestic product of Kazakhstan (16.8%). At the same time, the industry ranks 1st in terms of social effect, providing jobs for more than 1.5 million people (16.8% of the employed population).

In accordance with the instruction of the Head of State to stabilize prices for socially important food products of the Ministry of Trade and Integration of the Republic of Kazakhstan, new approaches and mechanisms for financing domestic agricultural producers have been introduced, providing for the early contracting of fixed volumes of supplies of late and early vegetables to the domestic market at fixed prices from farmers.

At the same time, the formed volumes of stocks of agricultural products are released to the market only during the off-season and are sold through partner outlets of the Socio-Entrepreneurial Corporation using cash registers.

Indicative retail prices have been calculated for the sale of the formed stocks, which makes it possible to keep socially significant food products within a controlled price corridor.

In particular, 139.5 thousand tons of products have been formed for the current off-season, of which 62.1 thousand tons have already been sold, including potatoes 29.7 thousand tons, carrots 11.7 thousand tons, onions 11.9 thousand tons, cabbage 8.7 thousand tons.

As a result, the Government managed to stop the growth of prices for basic foodstuffs: over the past 7 weeks it has not exceeded 0.1%, and since the beginning of the year it has amounted to 3.5%, although over the past 5 years the growth over the same period has averaged 6.4%. At the same time, in annual terms, food inflation in April 2023 amounted to 17.9% against 26.2% in February this year with a decrease of 8.3%.

In order to control the commodity balance of socially significant goods sold, a monitoring system has been created, today this tool already allows you to make timely decisions to protect the domestic market.

Having investigated the entire pricing chain from production to sale, the Ministry of Trade and Integration is actively working to reduce the number of resellers. Thus, the analysis of 1389 supply chains showed that in 389 cases there are violations.

The Ministry has done significant work on legislative reforms in the field of trade. New rules have been established for trade markets and large retail facilities, a mechanism has been introduced for the first time to protect domestic goods sold from dumping of imported products by setting a minimum wholesale price for socially significant goods produced, imported and (or) sold in the country. A clear algorithm of the unified mechanism of state control over compliance with the legislation on the regulation of trade activities is prescribed, it is envisaged to create an information system by digitizing trade markets and large retail facilities (with an area of more than 2000 sq.m).

The proposed changes are aimed at strengthening the transparency of trade markets, ensuring the protection of small businesses from unreasonable interference and pressure from market owners, eliminating unnecessary intermediary links in order to reduce the price burden on the population.