Contracts and memoranda worth 3 billion tenge were signed by the social and entrepreneurial corporation and entrepreneurs of Kazakhstan at the fair

For the first time, a large—scale event in terms of the number of participants and the volume of products exhibited was held in the homeland of rice - in the Kyzylorda region. Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Serik Zhumangarin, Vice Ministers of Trade and Integration, Agriculture, deputy akims and chairmen of social and entrepreneurial corporations of all regions, over 100 entrepreneurs from all over Kazakhstan took part in the fair «Zheri kurishti, eli yrysty of Kyzylorda». The main objective of the fair is to conclude memoranda in advance for the future harvest of socially significant food products in order to stabilize prices for them in winter and off—season.

«Last year, the government revised approaches to price stabilization. The essence of the new measures is to provide farmers with financing in advance for the purchase of socially significant food products at fixed prices. Today, the regions have allocated funds in the amount of 118.1 billion tenge for these purposes, including 36 billion tenge for forward purchase, which allows contracting from manufacturers. We are ready to continue the practice of direct purchase of products from manufacturers. Today's fair, I am sure, will provide an opportunity to establish an effective dialogue between business and the SEC, the leadership of the regions, which will ultimately have a positive impact on the pricing policy for socially significant products», — Serik Zhumangarin stressed at the opening of the fair.

At the fair, 35 rice processing farms and 2 salt-producing enterprises of the Kyzylorda region presented their products at prices 20% below market prices. Entrepreneurs of Aktobe, Zhambyl, and Pavlodar regions also exhibited their socially significant goods. Following the results of the fair, contracts and memoranda worth about 3 billion tenge were signed between rice processing enterprises of the Kyzylorda region, SEC and entrepreneurs of other regions. This is combined with over 7,600 tons of food products. In particular, only the secs of Astana, Almaty and Almaty region purchased 1,000 tons of rice each from Kyzylorda producers.

Serik Zhumangarin also visited the rice processing plant of Magzhan and K LLP with a production capacity of more than 33 thousand tons of products per year. The enterprise is equipped with modern high-tech equipment and is managed through a single automated system. The Deputy Prime Minister got acquainted with the activities of the Assol plant for the production of iodized food and technical salt, which is sold to the domestic market and partly for export. In addition, he inspected the new vegetable storage of the agroindustrial complex «Zhan-Arai». The vegetable storage consists of 8 cold storage chambers of 140 tons of one-time storage each with 8 sets of refrigeration units. According to the head of the enterprise, the equipment of the vegetable storehouse allows storing a wide range of groceries.

The Minister of Trade and Integration met separately with business representatives of the Kyzylorda region. Entrepreneurs voiced the urgent issues of the industry, including the provision of irrigation water and the expansion of rice farmers' access to modern agricultural machinery. Serik Zhumangarin informed agricultural producers about the measures of state support through the program «Auyl Amanaty», with which you can get micro-loans at a low percentage for the development of agriculture.

«The state is implementing many programs to support agriculture in the country. But I would like to focus on the issue of water shortage separately. Water scarcity is a very serious threat to our future. We will create a working group where we will consider new approaches to the use of water resources. It is necessary to change the tariff system, farmers should switch to moisture–saving technologies. We simply have no other options», — Serik Zhumangarin summed up the results of the meeting.