October 19, 2011

Kazakhstan's 2012 poultry imports seen down

Kazakhstan's poultry imports will be lowered by 30% in 2012, according to the Ministry of Agriculture representatives recently.

According to Nurlybek Malelova, the managing director of the country's largest agricultural holding, KazAgro, the implementation of investment programmes to finance high-tech projects will not only reduce the share of import on the domestic market but also enable the country to supply poultry for export in the foreseeable future.

The first project will be launched in December this year in the South Kazakhstan region. Equipped with the latest technology, the new complex will produce 4.8 tonnes of poultry meat per year.

The total project cost is about KZT3.8 million (US$26,000). The new complex will have a full production cycle from hatchery to waste processing plant.

All in all, the holding approved the construction of six such facilities across the country with total production volume of about 40,000 tonnes per year. Total investments cost KZT14.9 billion (US$100.8 million), of which KZT12 billion (US$81 million) is accounted for by KazAgro, the remaining amount has been allocated by the federal government.

"The volume of imports has remained unchanged over the past few years. However, growth in domestic production, which in the past few years was about 15% per year, will let us significantly cut import supplies, almost by 30% compared with the level of 2011.

"In 2012, we plan to bring this volume of domestic poultry production up to 130,000", said representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture. Nowadays, the total volume of poultry import in Kazakhstan is about 100,000 tonnes per year.