OREANDA-NEWS. October 11, 2013. Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov has held a Government session on the issues of development of agricultural processing in Kazakhstan.

Akhmetov emphasized the priority of agricultural processing, production of quality, available and competitive food products in the agro-industrial complex. He reminded of the President’s task to provide the domestic market with at least 80% of domestic products, and approach new export markets.

Minister of Agriculture Assylzhan Mamytbekov told about the situation in the agricultural industry. According to him, agricultural processing accounts for 5% in the total volume of industrial production in Kazakhstan.

 According to the Statistics Agency, 1370 enterprises operate in the food and processing industry of Kazakhstan. Cereal processing, dairy, bread and bakery, meat processing, fruit and vegetable, oil and fat industries are main in the structure of production of food products.

The volume of agricultural production and food processing industry in 2012 amounted to about 830 billion tenge or 5.5 billion U.S. dollars.

"In 2013 we see a positive trend in turnover within the Customs Union. For seven months of 2013 export grew by 72%, import – by 2%," Mamytbekov noted.

According to him, the share of local production is more than 80% in the domestic market of main agricultural products.

"The main purpose of the processing industry in the framework of the program "Agribusiness 2020" is to reduce production costs and improve the competitiveness of domestic products in the domestic and foreign markets," the Minister stressed.

The priority areas of the processing industry are milk, meat, fruits and vegetables, oilseeds, pasta and cereals, sugar, primary processing of hides. All seven areas are included in the master plan for the development of the processing industry. A single comprehensive plan of action was also developed.

The latter document will soon be submitted to the Government for approval.

Co-chair of the Dairy Union of Kazakhstan A.Kuzlyakin, director of LLP "Company "Maslodel" P.Selivanov, director of the Issyk canned fruit plant in Almaty region E.Aidarbayev, director of LLP “Semipalatinsk meat packing plant" B.Zhamangarinov, and governors of Aktobe region and South Kazakhstan region A. Mukhambetov and A.Myrzakhmetov delivered their reports during the meeting, too.

Summing up the meeting, the Prime Minister said that the main directions of development of the processing industry were defined in the program "Agribusiness 2020". Under this program, more than 130 billion tenge will be allocated for the support and development of the processing industry till 2020.

"Specific measures of state support and annual volumes of funds needed are given in detail in the master plan for the development of the processing industry," Serik Akhmetov said. He emphasized that the issues of cross-sector coordination had to be addressed in the framework of the comprehensive plan of development of agricultural processing.

"The Ministry of Agriculture in cooperation with governors of the regions and interested state bodies have to take into account the comments and proposals given at the meeting and update the corresponding plans in line with the regions’ comprehensive plans, and ensure implementation of the decisions made," the Prime Minister urged.

"Increasing the competitiveness of our products in terms of integration is not only the government task, but also the priority for business,"Akhmetov stressed. He urges agribusiness to mobilize and use the opportunities provided by the government.

"If there is strong processing, strong marketing, there will be a good impulse to the general development of agricultural production," Serik Akhmetov concluded.