Arman Shakkaliev: Atyrau region enterprises have serious export potential

Minister of Trade and Integration Arman Shakkaliev during his working trip to Atyrau region visited a number of enterprises and social facilities, as well as held a meeting with the population of the region.

The head of the Ministry of Trade familiarized himself with the activities of the private industrial zone «Daulet», inspected shops for the production of bakery and pasta products, drinking water.

The private industrial zone «Daulet» is a modern diversified enterprise, which includes a bakery and confectionery production plant «Daulet Nan», a drinking water production shop, a pasta production shop, a mill, a meat processing plant, and a sewing shop.

According to Rashid Otarov, the head of «Karat» LLP, the products of the Atyrau company are represented both in the local market and outside the region and are in demand among consumers. The enterprise of the industrial zone is equipped with modern automated lines of Italian production.

«We fully cover the needs of the region. For example, our mill produces 150 tons of flour per day. The capacity of the bakery plant is 30 tons per day. There are more than 150 types of bakery products in our assortment. One shop for pasta production produces 2000 tons of products of ten kinds on an average hourly basis», -said the head of production. - We have every opportunity to enter other regions and export. We have already gained a little experience of working with Russia. The partners themselves came to us and we have been exporting our products for more than 6 months. Our goal is to establish product deliveries to the markets of Pakistan and Iran.

In turn, Arman Shakkaliev reminded that the President has set a large-scale task for the state and business - to turn Kazakhstan into a food hub, to increase exports.

«Such enterprises as «Karat» are capable of ensuring the scale, quality and regularity of export supplies. They only need help to enter foreign markets», - the minister noted and invited the head of the company to take part in the next trade and economic mission to Iran.

The next object for the visit was the vegetable storage facility of «Atyrau Agrofelix» LLP. Its peculiarity is in modern equipment and application of new storage technologies. Vegetable warehouse holds 8 thousand tons of products. There is also a shop for canning vegetables.

«Our farm is the operator of the stabilization fund, provides the population of Atyrau with agricultural goods at affordable prices. The demand for fresh vegetables and salads is constant, so we have no problems with sales», – shared Felix Yun, Director of the enterprise..

On the same day, the Minister of Trade and Integration held a meeting with the business community of Atyrau region, where entrepreneurs spoke about the difficulties and voiced topical issues and proposals.

Thus, one of the meeting participants raised the issue of setting price limits for wholesale and trading companies that offer their goods at the level or even more expensive than the established restrictive prices. She suggested constant monitoring of trading companies, not only final sellers - «convenience stores».

According to Arman Shakkaliev, the establishment of price limits is provided for both retailers and wholesalers. Rules for establishing thresholds of retail prices for socially important food products and the amount of maximum allowable retail prices for them is designed to prevent the emergence of shortages of goods and balance the interests of domestic business and the population.

«I think your question is not related to price caps, but rather to the wholesalers' trade markup. Legally, there are uniform requirements for wholesalers and stores. The rules define the types of calculations of local executive bodies to establish the size of thresholds of retail prices for socially important saleable goods», - the Minister added.

Another participant of the meeting complained about online stores that refuse to return goods and money.

«In your case, the owner of the online store, regardless of which country he is a resident of, is obliged to be guided by the current legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, in particular, the law on consumer protection. The current legislation provides for administrative responsibility for violation of the terms of return of goods of both proper and improper quality. In case of violation of your rights as a consumer, you can apply to a structural subdivision of our Ministry, the local Department of Trade and Consumer Protection», - answered Arman Shakkaliev.