"Atameken" and the Ministry of Agriculture of RK initiated the movement for the promotion of the Kazakh products at the Chinese market

Today, the site of NCE RK "Atameken" was held a briefing, during which Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of the National Chamber Nurzhan Altaev, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and industry associations spoke about the prospects of Kazakhstan's export of agricultural and food products to the Chinese market.

Nurzhan Altaev said that today the raw material orientation of the economy of Kazakhstan takes a back seat, according to the Head of State, agriculture should be the new driver of the economy. And it is not enough just to develop the domestic market, it is necessary to access the markets of neighboring countries - Russia and China.

"Selling the agricultural products at world prices, we stimulate the production of own raw materials, we increase the load of the processing enterprises. The Chinese market for us is not just a market, but a way to increase the volume of sales, the opportunity for the development of agro-industrial complex. Well-established channels of exports to China may be the factor that ultimately raise our agriculture and processing industry to a new level. By imports of food, China holds the third place after the European Union and the United States. Annual food imports to China equals more than 115 billion US dollars. Just last year, for example, China imported 3 million tonnes of wheat, 11 million tonnes of barley in the amount of 4 billion dollars. Beef - 3 billion dollars in the amount of 7 million tons, 200 thousand tons of melons in the amount of 38 million dollars. Around 7000 tonnes of honey worth 75 million USD", - said Nurzhan Altaev.

The share of Kazakhstani products is very small, it is only 0.1%. It is extremely small, given the existing potential of grain exports, oilseeds, flour, meat, vegetable oil, confectionery, beverages and other products.

Nurzhan Altaev and the President of Meat Union Maksut Baktibaev stressed that the main advantage of Kazakhstan's production is its naturalness.

"In many countries, including in China, such products are in high demand, and prices are different from ours. On some types of products prices are 5, 7, and somewhere 10-fold higher than at the domestic market of Kazakhstan. Chinese people are willing to pay extra for good quality and natural products. This is a good opportunity for us", - said Nurzhan Altaev.

At the same time, according to Maksut Baktybaev, it is important to control the quality of products supplied for export, in order to avoid good image loss.

NCE together with the Ministry of Agriculture is working hard to promote the Kazakh products at the Chinese market, in particular by removing restrictions on certain types of products.

"As for beef and mutton, China removes restrictions from nine of our regions, mainly, it is the northern, central and western regions. As for the other 5 regions - East Kazakhstan region, Almaty, Zhambyl, Kyzylorda and South Kazakhstan region, we will seek for recognition of the territory of these regions as FMD free zone with vaccination. As fot poultry products, there is a restriction for Kazakhstan due to an avian influenza, we have sent materials to the Chinese side, confirming the absence of the disease in our territory and the measures that have been taken during the period of occurrence of this disease in the past. Now we expect the arrival of Chinese experts to get acquainted with our system of fighting with the disease in the whole country", - said the deputy chairman of the committee of veterinary control and supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan Olzhas Ausbaev.

Nurzhan Altaev said that NCE has started work on integration of local honey producers from among small-scale farmers. In EKR 1500 honey producers integrated in one cooperative, due to which farmers managed to equip the processing and packaging plant, which makes it possible to enter the Chinese market, where great attention is paid to the packaging of goods.

"The Chinese veterinary inspection was invited with the forces of this co-operative, which has checked the quality of honey and was satisfied with it, it made sure that there are no additives, antibiotics in it. In the near future a certificate will issued for this honey, respectively, the Chinese market will open for Kazakhstani honey producers", - said the deputy chairman of NCE.

Thus, according to him, the National Chamber intends to work with each product, which Kazakhstani farmers are ready to supply to the Chinese market.

In order to inform the domestic producers about the features of export of agricultural products, NCE has opened a section on its official website palata.kz called "Export to China". Any farmer, who wants to promote products to the Chinese market, can go to this website and see the whole sequence of actions required for this. A call-center was arranged for this work 8-800-080-80-10, e-mail address: export@palata.kz and a group in the social network Facebook “Atameken. Export to China".

The subsidiary of NCE – The Chamber of Commerce of Kazakhstan – was appointed the working body.

Nurzhan Altaev said that Kazakh producers need to be prepared for a very thorough inspection of product quality by the Chinese veterinary inspection. For simpler access to the Chinese market, he advised small farmers to unite in cooperatives.

Olzhas Ausbaev, in turn, noted that in 2013, thanks to the carried out work was expanded the list of fish processing plants, authorized to supply their products to the Chinese market, up to 24.

Maksut Baktibaev stressed it is necessary to maintain a balance in the export of beef and mutton, not to bring down the domestic market, as prices at the external markets are much higher than at home.

"The average price of a kilogram of beef market in China is 10 dollars – i.e. 3500 tenge, and at the domestic market - 1500 tenge. Therefore it is necessary to use the balance model and quotas, on the basis of our production capacity", - said Maksut Baktibaev.

In the same year, according to him, Kazakhstan can export about 1 million tons of high quality beef.

The Chairman of the Union of potato and vegetable growers Kairat Bisetaev also sees great potential in exports of domestic potatoes and vegetables to China. Due to the state's policy in the past 5 years, we managed to increase production capacity and to make prices at the same level for products within the country, i.e. made it possible to develop exports. He sees promising countries for export, such as Russia, China and Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan can supply starch and potato flakes to China.

Head of Food Safety Department Arman Abdullin mentioned prospects of soybean exports, barley, maize, as well as Kazakhstan's flax.

Summing up the results of the briefing, Nurzhan Altaev again urged all businesses to participate actively in the promotion of the Kazakh products and to enter the Chinese market.