ASTANA, Kazakhstan, October 21. The total volume of trade turnover of agricultural products of Kazakhstan with the CIS countries has reached $6.5 billion in 2022, said Minister of Agriculture Aydarbek Saparov, Trend reports.
As he noted, this figure exceeds the 2021 indicators by 23 percent, and also accounts for 60 percent of the total turnover of agricultural products of Kazakhstan.
"At the same time, exports to the CIS countries over the past year amounted to almost $3 billion, an increase of 27 percent - this is 56 percent of the total exports of the republic’s agro-industrial complex. At the same time, Kazakhstan purchased agricultural products from the CIS countries for $3.5 billion, which amounts to 67 percent of the republic’s total imports. However, to increase mutual trade volumes, it is necessary to continue working to remove trade restrictions, including veterinary and phytosanitary barriers," he said.
Saparov noted that the dynamic development of the agricultural sector in the countries of the CIS makes it possible not only to actively strengthen food security, but also to play an important role in the global food market
"For many positions, the share of the commonwealth countries in world production ranges from 10 percent to 30 percent. For example, for the production of sugar beets - 27 percent, for potatoes - 17.5 percent and other positions. Therefore, we should stimulate the expansion of agricultural trade both within the region and beyond," he added.
The volume of gross agricultural output in Kazakhstan increased by 3.2 percent in the first half of 2023 and amounted to 2.1 trillion tenge (about $4.4 billion)
The growth was achieved mainly due to a 3.3 percent increase in livestock production volumes. Meat production increased by 4.5 percent (1 million tons in live weight) and milk by 2.9 percent (3.2 million tons).
In 2022, the volume of gross agricultural production increased by 9.1 percent and amounted to 9.3 trillion tenge (about $19.5 billion). This happened due to an increase in crop production by 15 percent. Favorable weather conditions made it possible to carry out the harvesting campaign without downtime and harvest one of the best grain harvests in the last 10 years, which reached 22.8 million tons.