Kazakhstan plans to increase the share of sunseed processing to 89%

Kazakhstan is planning to increase the share of sunseed processing to 89% this year, as part of a wider strategy to increase the processing of various crops, meat, and milk. The government aims to reach a 50% share of processed products by 2027. Despite increased food production volumes, domestic producers are struggling to sell their products both domestically and internationally due to limited access to trade shelves and imported dumping. To address these issues, the government is considering 76 projects to replenish the working capital of processing enterprises, and plans to finance 14 investment projects worth KZT31.8bn ($63.14m) by 2025.

This year, Kazakhstan plans to bring the share of sunseed processing to 89%, said the head of the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan at an expanded meeting of the Board of the Ministry. As noted by the head of the Ministry, at the end of last year, the volume of food production increased by 2.9%. The share of processed products reached 52%. Growth in vegetable oil production amounted to 12.1%. As for the remaining crops it is planned to increase the share of buckwheat processing up to 59%, rice – up to 82%, corn – up to 13.1%, meat – up to 50%, milk – up to 65%. The attention of the board participants was emphasized on the importance of maintaining the provision of basic foodstuffs at the level of 80% at the expense of domestic production. “Despite the growth of production volumes, domestic producers face difficulties in selling their products both in domestic and foreign markets. The main reasons are the lack of access to trade shelves of large networks and dumping of ...