Governmental support to raise competitiveness of domestic food market: Deputy Minister of Agriculture M.Orazayev
Mr. Orazayev, the implementation of the Program on Forced Industrial-Innovative Development of the country was launched this year. What projects of the agro-industrial complex were included in the program?
Realization of over 20 big projects of the agro-industrial complex is planned within the program. These are projects on establishment of eight stock breeding complexes, two poultry farms, three greenhouses, three commercial diary farms, one meet-processing plant, one bakery, etc. The state program defines measures of governmental support aimed at promotion of investments and technological modernization, innovations and development of the agrarian science. Taking into consideration the situation at the grain market, the work on formation of the Single Grain Export Policy was activated this year as well.
Extension of production in the agricultural structures by means of transferring the sector to the industrial base, development of stock bases, etc is planned in the cattle breeding industry. The indices of cattle breeding development are improving in the country annually.
The Head of the State set the following tasks before the Agriculture Ministry - to increase the labor capacity in the agro-industrial complex twofold as minimum by 2014 and provide the domestic market with goods by 80%. What is to be done to execute the instructions?
Today the rate of the domestic food at the domestic consumer market is up to 67%. In order to execute the President's instructions we must solve two main issues. Firstly, the demand of basic foodstuff at the domestic market is satisfied by the domestic producers. But there still exists a shortage of some foods. This shortage must be eliminated. Secondly, today the agricultural processing industry needs qualitative primary products from one side. From the other side, the majority of the output is consumed unprocessed. As the result, producing manufactures cant work for the full capacity. Besides, they come off technically and technologically.
The processed products are supplied to the market in deficiency and imported goods take its place. In this regard we should address the problem of production of qualitative raw materials, modernization of reprocessing manufactures, achieve full provision of the domestic market with domestic goods and remove imported goods from the competitive environment. Measures on governmental control and support will be designed for solution of these problems as well.
Measures to develop the reprocessing sector to the level of our main trade partners - Russia and Belarus are planned as well. The improvement of the genetic potential of the local breed is solved by purchasing well bred cattle of foreign breeding. We plan to increase the rate of well bred cattle by 14% by 2015. Differentiated standards of subsidies were introduced.
Thirdly, we work over consolidation and cooperation of production through integration of small producers. To achieve these goals we should compensate for the lack of qualified specialists in agriculture and solve the issue of retaining them in rural areas.
Today we can fully provide ourselves with own production except for fruits and berries, early vegetables and sugar beet. The Law "On amendments to some legislative acts of Kazakhstan on the issues of food safety" as of December 11, 2009 foresees a new type of state support - subsidizing crop production in closed ground.
The Customs Union of Kazakhstan, Russia and Belarus has already started its work. Whether the domestic agricultural producers are ready real competition within the framework of the Customs Union?
Of course, the domestic producers must improve quality of production in order to compete successfully with the Russian and Belarusian goods. To date 342 local producers have already implemented international standards ISO and HACCP. This is not a very high indicator, but we are ready for the competition.
The export potential of Kazakhstan is big. However, the export opportunities of cattle breeding industry are not used in full for several reasons: low technical and technological level of production, depreciation of fixed assets, low quality of raw materials and etc. Removing these causes will increase the volumes of processing of livestock products, improve quality of preservation and preparation of raw materials and increase competitiveness of the domestic production.
At the sitting on the issues of development of agro-industrial complex held at the end of 2009 in Astana Minister for Agriculture Akhylbek Kurishbayev suggested creating a specialized system of financing the agro-industrial complex. What advantages does this system offer?
As is known, the existing bank credit system, in connection with the duration of the turnover of capital in the agro-industrial complex and rural areas, with high risk, can not offer an appropriate range of financial services at the required level. Thus here appears the necessity of establishing a specialized agrarian bank that will allow to form an effective financial-credit system for agro-industrial complex using the experience of KazAgro Holding.
Thank you for the interview!