Deliveries of cheapened and imported grain to milling operators will be managed manually

JSC «NC «KTZ» together with the Food Corporation, the Ministry of Agriculture and the operators of the flour mills of the regions will hold daily conference calls for operational manual regulation of supplies to flour mills of cheaper Kazakh and imported Russian grain. This decision was made at a regular meeting on price stabilization for social food products, held in the government under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Serik Zhumangarin.

As the chairman of the Trade Committee of the Ministry of Trade and Information Aidar Abildabekov announced at the meeting, as of October 20, 2023, 16 regions signed memoranda for the supply of cheaper grain, 12 regions export grain and flour.

«Of the 16 regions that have signed memoranda with the Food Corporation, the North Kazakhstan Region has not yet identified a flour mill operator, has not signed a supply contract and has not made a payment. Almaty and Ulytau region did not make the payment, which is why the supply of grain to flour mills is delayed», — he said.

Recall that the cheaper grain allocated from the reserves of the Food Corporation is necessary for the production of social bread and ensuring its stable price.

As for the import of Russian grain, then, according to KTZ, flour mills for October 2023 applied for the import of 274 thousand tons of grain, but on October 20, only 57 thousand tons actually arrived. The main reason is the lack of timely payment for grain from flour mills. In September, the volume of import of imported wheat amounted to 107 thousand tons.

Russian wheat is necessary for Kazakhstani enterprises to produce flour and pasta. To solve the difficulties in deliveries with each flour mill operator in the regions, state agencies and the national railway operator will work out the scheme of delivery of social products to enterprises on a daily basis.

As of October 20, 2023, official statistics from the general price growth index for the week of 0.1% fix an increase in prices for chicken eggs of 1.4%. At the last meeting, the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition was instructed to inform about the results of the analysis of prices for products showing an increasing trend. According to the deputy chairman of AZRK Bolat Sambetov, within the framework of the antimonopoly analysis, factors affecting the pricing of eggs in the chain from producers to retail chains have been identified.  A number of violations on the part of retail chains and poultry farms have been identified.

The Agency sent materials to the Ministry of Trade on all identified violations of the legislation on trade activities. Within the framework of antimonopoly legislation, the territorial departments of the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition will take appropriate response measures.

Special attention was paid to the situation with the transition of akimats to a new format of providing state support to agricultural producers under revolving schemes — from retail chains directly to farmers and processors.

Recall that in November 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture developed new approaches to forward financing of agricultural producers, the essence of which is the early allocation of budget funds to farmers for the supply of vegetables at fixed prices. In May 2023, forward financing of processing enterprises engaged in the production of buckwheat, rice, sunflower oil, flour and sugar was introduced. In addition, the May order of the Ministry of Agriculture stipulates a mandatory condition for at least 70% of financing to be sent directly to farmers and processing enterprises. As of today, only 7 regions have reformatted the turnover schemes by 100%. The lowest indicators of financing of agricultural producers are in Almaty (30%), Astana (42%), Shymkent (46%), Karaganda (18%), Pavlodar (36%) regions.

«At the next meeting, we should already see the results of the manual mode of grain and flour supply management. And first of all, it is to bring down the trend of increasing the price of flour. The same work should be carried out daily in manual mode by akimats in the regions with all producers and suppliers of social products that show growth dynamics», — Serik Zhumangarin summed up the meeting.