OREANDA-NEWS. November 10, 2014. It is expected that in 2015 Kazakhstan will receive the status of an area free from FMD. It was announced by Vice Minister of Agriculture Gulmira Isayeva in Majilis.

"Epizootic situation in our country is stable. Kazakhstan has applied to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) in September 2014. It is expected that we will get the status of FMD free area with vaccination and without it next year. It allows exporting meat without any restrictions to any country in the world in the framework of WTO rules," G.Issayeva explained to reporters in the lobby of Majilis.

It is expected that the outcome of the application will be announced this spring.

"We will get the answer next year, probably in May 2015. The Assembly of this organization will be held, where Kazakhstan's status as FMD free area will be announced," G. Issayeva added.
The OIE is the intergovernmental organization responsible for improving animal health worldwide, it is recognized as a referential organization of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Nowadays the OIE includes 178 countries. The OIE maintains permanent relations with other international organizations, and has 12 regional and subregional representatives in all continents. OIE Headquarters is in Paris (France). International agreement on establishment of the OIE was signed in January 25, 1924.

According to the data of October 30, Kazakhstan has already sold for export more than 4 thousand tons of meat.

"This year we have already sold for export more than 4 million tons of meat as of October 30. In particular red meat. If to add poultry meat, the volume of meat exports of Kazakhstan is 8 800 tons as of today," G.Issayeva told the reporters in the lobby of Majilis.

She clarified that the lion's share of meat exports from Kazakhstan goes to the countries of the Customs Union. "Generally, the greatest volume now is export within the Customs Union, to Russia, in particular, Moscow, Russian Federation border areas. The proportion is about 90%. We also export to our neighbors from the South, that is, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. And we also have experience in export to Islamic countries in small amounts, where meat produced by Halal standards is welcome, and this technology is being promoted in enterprises of Kazakhstan nowadays," Vice Minister explained.

We should remind you that Kazakhstan plans to increase the export potential of cattle meat to 60 thousand tons in 2016. 120 billion tenge have been allocated from the National Fund for these purposes. However, Kazakhstan exported 330 tons of meat in 2013. This year, the export of meat is expected in the range of 10 thousand tons. "In 2014 we have already exported only 4,400 tons of red meat as of the end of October. This shows that the program will pick up the pace by 2016: through increasing farms, feeding sites in feedlots, through creation of an entire infrastructure of meat processing plants, cold storage containers, logistics centers. But we must understand that this process is a geometric progression," the representative of Agriculture Ministry said.

In her opinion, the export figure of 60 thousand tons in 2016 for Kazakhstan is achievable.

"The Program "Sybaga" began a few years ago when we delivered "Genetics", started crossbreeding of local breeds of cattle with the best representatives of genetics of meat specification. Unfortunately, we had mainly dairy cattle, further engaged in creation of breeding stock farms. We have a sufficient number of breeding stocks that can produce steers, and they will be sent to feedlots. And there we will export to the nearest countries, for instance, to Russia. We clearly believe that the program will pick up the pace by 2016," G.Issayeva concluded.