Over five years agricultural production increased by 1.4 times in Kazakhstan
Aidarbek Saparov, First Deputy Minister of Agriculture, took part in the conference “Kazakhstan - Russia: trade and economic cooperation in the field of agriculture”, which was held as part of the I International Agro-Industrial Forum (AIF-2019) in Moscow, Agriculture Ministry of Kazakhstan reports.
In his report on cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia in the agricultural sector, A. Saparov spoke about the results achieved by Kazakhstan in the agricultural sector, in particular, over the past five years agricultural production has increased by 1.4 times. At the same time, he noted that the average annual growth rate of labor productivity in the agricultural sector amounted to 24%, reaching in 2018 an indicator of 2,076.6 thousand tenge. The export of industry products has grown, as well. The total export of agricultural products in 2018 increased by 24.5%, including the export of processed products growth by 3.5%.
In January-June 2019, the trade turnover of agricultural products and processed agricultural products between Kazakhstan and Russia amounted to $950.5 million, which is 7.8% more than in the same period in 2018 ($881.9 million). The volume of exports from Kazakhstan to Russia in January-June 2019 amounted to $203.6, which is 4.8% more than for the same period in 2018 ($194.3).
“The agricultural sector is becoming attractive for business. Over the past five years, 1.3 trillion tenge of investments has been attracted to the industry, including private sector’s investments - about 80% of investments, in particular 365.1 billion tenge in 2018”, the First Deputy Minister emphasized.
In order to attract investment in the agro-industrial complex of the country, both foreign and domestic, work is underway to create appropriate conditions for supporting entrepreneurship, namely: subsidizing priority areas, providing soft loans and leasing, special taxation regimes for agribusiness entities.
“To produce products in volumes necessary for export is not enough. It is necessary that the products are competitive and comply with the legislative standards of importing countries in the field of veterinary medicine and phytosanitary. To this end, the Ministry is constantly working to harmonize the veterinary and phytosanitary requirements of the importing countries, which allows our farmers to supply their products to new markets”, Aidarbek Saparov said.
At the conclusion of his report, First Deputy Minister A. Saparov noted that the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture is ready to interact with the Russian Ministry of Agriculture.
It should be noted that the conference was organized by the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation on the eve of the celebration of the Day of the Worker of Agriculture and Processing Industry of Russia. The AIF-2019 plenary meeting was attended by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, FAO Director General Qu Dongyu, Russian Minister of Agriculture Dmitry Patrushev, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management of Serbia Branislav Nedimovic, World Futurologist, Morgaine Gaye.
