00:00Music
00:10Kazakhstan aims to become a food processing hub.
00:13Processed products accounted for 60% of agricultural output last year,
00:17while exports of processed foods rose by 35%, reaching over 2.5 billion euro.
00:23The government now wants value-added products to dominate agricultural exports.
00:29Welcome to East-West Connect.
00:31We're highlighting business and economic opportunities in Kazakhstan and the wider Central Asian region,
00:36connecting with Europe and beyond.
00:38With oil seed processing capacity at 5 million tons per year,
00:42Kazakhstan ranks among the top three suppliers of sunflower meal to the EU
00:47and the world's top 10 exporters of sunflower oil.
00:50It produced 890,000 tons of vegetable oil last year, up 17% from 2024.
00:56The country is also the EU's second largest supplier of durum wheat
01:00and already processes 5 million tons of grain annually.
01:04By 2028, it plans to add 6 million tons of deep grain processing capacity,
01:09focusing on higher-value products such as amino acids, syrups and vitamins.
01:15For more on the country's food processing ambitions,
01:17we spoke to Kazakhstan's Vice Minister of Agriculture, Yerbol Tashjurekov.
01:21The government has launched an opening price.
01:32The foreign-variance of estate and capitalization is査.
01:44This is the opening of new investment projects,
01:48which are aimed at the production of the agro-promptial complex.
01:53Today we have formed a pipeline of investment projects,
01:57which we monitor with investors, with regions,
02:02where we have established a certain period of time.
02:04The production, which we plan to plan,
02:06will help us to increase the overall cost of the production of the APK
02:12and its next export.
02:14How is Kazakhstan aligned its food safety regulation with EU standards,
02:20particularly in meat, fish and honey?
02:23We increase every year,
02:26we look at the requirements to our export products.
02:31In the past year, we bought about seven best researches
02:36of the laboratory equipment,
02:38which was accredited by the European Union.
02:41If we had a chance to test our export products,
02:45including import products,
02:47on seven components,
02:48now we can test our product by 72 components.
02:52This is a wide and tight control of our production.
02:56And in this case,
02:59we have a agreement with a certificate
03:03and a permission to purchase,
03:05for example,
03:06the production of the European Union.
03:07It is milk,
03:09it is meat,
03:09and in this case,
03:11a package of export
03:13of our Kazakhstan meat.
03:15Mr. Tajurekov, thanks for being with us today.
03:20Elsewhere in the sector,
03:21the dairy industry processes about
03:232.7 million tons of milk annually,
03:25while meat processing enterprises produce 450,000 tons.
03:30Against that backdrop,
03:32one of the sector's leading companies
03:34is expanding its processing capacity.
03:38Kazakhstan's poultry experts are partly driven
03:41by the ITAS Holding Group,
03:43which plans to nearly quadruple total output
03:45to 350,000 tons by 2030.
03:49The group owns Central Asia's largest poultry farm,
03:51located in Kazakhstan's Akmola region.
03:53The Makinsk poultry complex produces 90,000 tons of meat per year
03:58and offers 80 products across the full value chain,
04:01from chilled meat to further processed and ready-to-cook items.
04:04If you look at the past year,
04:07Kazakhstan exported only 31,000 tons of meat per year,
04:11but here,
04:12the cost of our company is 11,000 tons.
04:15If you say,
04:16who we sell,
04:17and in which countries,
04:18then you can call it
04:18the Russian Federation,
04:20the Kyrgyzstan,
04:21the Tajikistan,
04:22the Uzbekistan,
04:23and the Belarus.
04:24And now,
04:25we are working on it,
04:26to expand the market market.
04:28We look at China,
04:30and we look at Central Asia.
04:32The Makinsk poultry farm was launched in 2015
04:34with support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
04:38and the Baitirek Venture Fund
04:39with a credit line from the Development Bank of Kazakhstan.
05:00As Kazakhstan rubs up production,
05:02the sector is increasingly focused on expanding capacity
05:05and boosting experts.
05:08To discuss financing for the sector
05:10and how this growth is being supported,
05:13we're joined by
05:14Marat Yilibayev,
05:15Chairman of the Board
05:16of the Development Bank of Kazakhstan.
05:20Mr. Yilibayev,
05:21thanks for joining us.
05:22Thank you,
05:22Boutankos, for invitation.
05:24What are the main barriers
05:24to shifting from raw commodity exports
05:26to deep value,
05:28and what conditions are still needed
05:31to accelerate the sector's development?
05:32Kazakhstan has abundant resources of land,
05:36so we have more than 200 million hectares
05:38of agricultural land,
05:39and we have more than 25 million hectares of arable land.
05:43So we produce a lot of raw materials,
05:47but primarily grain,
05:49its oil products,
05:51not really processed products.
05:54So just to give an example,
05:57in terms of grain production,
05:59last year we produced more than 25 million tons of grain,
06:02but only one-fifth had been processed in Kazakhstan.
06:06And if you talk about deep processing,
06:08it's only a few percentage percentage.
06:10So we have a strong base of raw materials,
06:14and the question mark,
06:15how is it going to process and produce
06:17and to create more value,
06:20additional value products in Kazakhstan.
06:23And here is a very important point
06:26is to build new production facilities in Kazakhstan,
06:30which is going to use those raw materials
06:33and create new products.
06:36If the food industry is to drive growth,
06:39what segments offer the strongest long-term financing potential,
06:44and what DBK instruments are currently most in demand
06:48to modernize food production?
06:50We see a lot of potential there.
06:53We're talking about deep grain processing,
06:56production of biotanol,
06:58production of lisin,
07:00syrups, some dairy products,
07:02production of oil and fat ingredients,
07:05et cetera, et cetera,
07:06where we see strong potential in Kazakhstan.
07:11The Development Bank of Kazakhstan
07:12focuses on two main directions.
07:14The first one, I would say,
07:15we focus on developing new investment projects.
07:20So it's long-term financing
07:21to create new production facilities in Kazakhstan.
07:25And second directions is export financing.
07:28So when the export company,
07:31the local company want to export,
07:33they potentially could apply for us
07:35in terms of getting export financing
07:37in order to help them to sell their products abroad.
07:42Both directions, I would say,
07:43are having a strong interest from the entrepreneurs.
07:49Mr. Gelibayev, thanks so much for your time today.
07:51Thank you, Bhutagos.
07:54That's all for now.
07:55See you in the next episode of East West Connect.
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