Kazakhstan sets ambitions goals for halal poultry

As part of the poultry industry development program adopted by the national government earlier this month, it plans to increase production to 740,000 tonnes (t) per year, with the ultimate goal to make the country the biggest poultry exporter in Central Asia, by supplying around 150,000t primarily of halal chicken per year to China and Middle East.

The Kazakhstan meat industry is currently able to generate $2.6 billion of export revenue per year on the red meat, and up to $1 billion in total on the so-called promising niches, including poultry meat, dairy products, fruit and vegetables, the Kazakhstan Agricultural Ministry estimated.

According to Ruslav Sharipov, president of the Kazakhstan’s Union of Poultry Farmers, the development program has been originally designed and proposed to the government by the poultry farmers. The nearest target is to increase the domestic poultry meat production from 180,000t in 2017 to 400,000t in 2021 and hence to stop importing poultry products. He explained that to help farmers to achieve that goal the government needs to eliminate some bottlenecks currently seen in the industry.

Firstly, he said, the government must start allocating a reimbursement of feed for poultry industry. The upcoming growth in production quantities requires the domestic feed production to be raised from 1.2 million t in 2017 to 2.5 million t in 2027. In addition, the government should support the new projects in the area of poultry farming with soft loans.

Several new poultry farms with the designed production capacity up to 50,000t each are slated to be built in the country in accordance with the program, although the detailed roadmap of the domestic poultry industry development must be designed by September 2018. 

From import to export​

Currently, Kazakhstan is a net importer of poultry meat. The domestic demand for poultry is estimated at 360,000t per year, according to the National Statistic Committee. Kazakhstan is importing most poultry duty-free from Russia and that import according to the Union of Poultry Farmers for years was the main obstacle constraining the growth of production in the domestic industry.

According to the Ministry, Kazakhstan in the first place plans to develop halal poultry export. Giving this Iran and Saudi Arabia are listed as the most promising sales directions for the coming decade.

In 2017 Kazakhstan exported 11,000t of poultry meat, up by almost eight times, as compared to the previous year, according to the Union of Poultry Farmers estimates. So far most supplies are taking place to the neighboring countries, including Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan. The most promising sales markets are UAE and China, the Union of Poultry Farmers added.

Large funds needed​

The preliminary estimations made by the Kazakhstan analytical agency Kazakh-Zerno showed that the giving the new targets in the poultry industry the overall investments into the agricultural industry of Kazakhstan would reach from KZN6 trillion ($17 billion) to KZT10 trillion ($28 billion) in total from 2019 to 2027. This would be two or three times higher than total amount of investments the industry was receiving in the past few years.