The FBRC editorial team continues to analyse the dynamics of Kazakhstan's largest land users in order to determine how much agricultural land has been seized from them recently.
To remind you, we have been receiving numerous complaints from various regions that land seizures are happening to small and medium-sized farms, while the work should have been aimed at seizing the territories of the latifundists.
The body directly responsible for this procedure is the Committee for Land Resources Management. Having examined the territories of the Pavlodar region, the Kostanay region and the Akmola region, we concluded that no significant changes had occurred in the areas held by the latifundists.
In this regard, we are trying to understand in whose interests the CLRM is conducting the work on land seizure. In this article, we will begin to examine the land users of another grain-growing region – the North Kazakhstan region.
TОО «TҰҚЫМ»
Thus, TОО «Tұқым» (growing cereals and leguminous crops, including seed production), which occupies about 56.2 thousand hectares of land in the North Kazakhstan region, was registered in 1999. The first head and founder is one Talgat Akayev.
TОО «Tұқым» has a medium degree of risk in terms of tax obligations. For 2023, the company paid 423.5 million tenge in taxes (in 2022 – 313.8 million tenge, in 2021 – 383.8 million tenge, in 2020 – 298.2 million tenge).
TОО «AGROFIRMA KZYLTOO-NAN»
The largest land user in the North Kazakhstan region – TОО «Agrofirma Kzyltoo-Nan» (growing cereals and leguminous crops, including seed production), occupying about 144 thousand hectares of share land in the North Kazakhstan region, was registered in 2005.
The first head is Marat Telemisov. The company has more than 830 founders, presumably, shareholders. One of the main founders is JSC «Holding Kazexportastyk».
TОО «Agrofirma Kzyltoo-Nan» has a high degree of risk in terms of tax obligations and a tax debt of 365.2 million tenge. For 2023, the company paid 283.6 million tenge in taxes (in 2022 – 196.3 million tenge, in 2021 – 48.5 million tenge, in 2020 – 8.9 million tenge).
Furthermore, the Agrofirma has a debt under enforcement proceedings before JSC «Agrarian Credit Corporation», JSC «KazAgroFinance», collection agencies, banks and a number of other legal entities in the amount of 14 billion tenge, 11 prohibitions on registration actions since October 2023, and is on the list of debtors temporarily restricted from leaving the Republic of Kazakhstan.
As for the management of TОО, Marat Telemisov, due to the company's debts to individuals and the UAPF, is also listed as a debtor under enforcement proceedings for an amount of about 6.4 billion tenge and has a ban on leaving Kazakhstan.
In addition, he appears in organisations such as TОО «Agroobedinenie Kzyltoo-Nan», the Youth Public Association «Nomad-Kyzyltoo» and the Agricultural Production Cooperative «Ualikhanov».
JSC «Holding Kazexportastyk» has a debt under enforcement proceedings amounting to 53.9 billion tenge, a tax debt of 58.6 million tenge, 5 prohibitions on registration actions since February 2023, and is on the list of debtors temporarily restricted from leaving the Republic of Kazakhstan.
In July 2023, Kursiv.Media wrote that JSC «Holding «KazExportAstyk» is the most malicious non-payer among the current debtors of the UAPF. As journalists noted, the Holding's debt had not been repaid (at least not the principal debt) since the purchase of bonds in 2011 and 2012.
The founder of the holding, Ruslan Moldabekov, was included in the top 50 richest businessmen in the Republic of Kazakhstan according to the local Forbes until 2015 inclusive. Together with Vasily Rozinov (founder of the company «IvolgaHolding») and Nurlan Tleubayev (owner of the «AlibiHolding» group), the media called him one of Kazakhstan's largest latifundists.
Around the mid-2010s, the entire trio of grain oligarchs went bankrupt, having accumulated huge debts to various state and private institutions, including foreign and international creditors.
According to Kompra.kz, currently the founders of JSC «Holding Kazexportastyk» include TОО «Investment Company APK», the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and TОО «Agro Group Invest».
The media reported that in February 2023, Moldabekov also left the composition of the direct shareholders of «KazExportAstyk». According to the DFO portal, the new shareholder of the holding (share size not specified) was once again TОО «Agro Group Invest». The second shareholder, owning more than 10% of shares, remained TОО «Investment Company APK».
It was noted that the UAPF public presentation states that «KazExportAstyk» is among the eight problematic issuers, in respect of whose officials «work is being carried out jointly with law enforcement agencies to establish the circumstances of damage to pension assets».
TОО «ASYL FARMS»
TОО «Asyl Farms» (mixed farming), formerly named TОО «Asyl Logistics», has been registered since 2014. The first head and one of the founders is Gabiden Balginbekov, co-founder – TОО «Financial Group «Asyl», also partially controlled by Balginbekov.
In addition, Balginbekov appears in companies such as TОО «Centre Nova Diagnostic», TОО «Tangens», TОО «Ulydala Commerce» and TОО «Alustar».
TОО «Asyl Farms» has a high degree of risk in terms of tax obligations. For 2023, the company paid 223 million tenge in taxes (in 2022 – 254.3 million tenge, in 2021 – 304.7 million tenge, in 2020 – 109.3 million tenge).
In the summer of this year, it was reported that there was a spill of toxic chemicals in the North Kazakhstan region. The first to raise the alarm were residents of the village of Afanasyevka in the Shal akyna district, whose health deteriorated sharply. The villagers claimed that the toxic fumes were so strong that they burned their throats, and according to them, horses died.
According to the people, the local TОО began «covering its tracks» urgently. However, the fact of the toxic chemical leak was confirmed by the Department of Natural Resources and Nature Management Regulation of the North Kazakhstan region, reporting that an ammonia leak occurred on the territory of TОО «Asyl Farms» near the border of the «Sergeevskoye» forestry.
Later, the Department of Ecology of the North Kazakhstan region reported that the results of the inspection revealed that the enterprise had caused soil pollution with liquid fertiliser CAS-32.
A failure to promptly notify the authorised body in the field of environmental protection about the potential environmental damage resulting from the accident was also recorded.
TОО «Asyl Farms» was brought to administrative responsibility in the form of fines totalling 1.1 million tenge. Meanwhile, journalists recalled that last year in the same district, a flock of sheep died due to a toxic chemical spill.
At that time, residents of the village of Novopokrovka said that the agricultural enterprise has a warehouse for agricultural chemicals near a lake from which people take water for livestock and household needs.
An unscheduled inspection of TОО «Asyl Logistics» was carried out, as a result of which ecologists identified violations of environmental requirements for the storage of liquid fertilisers and failure to fulfil obligations regarding state environmental expertise.
The enterprise was issued an order to eliminate the identified violations. The ecologists also filed a lawsuit in court to suspend the operation of the liquid fertiliser storage facility, which was being operated in violation of environmental legislation requirements.
However, as we can see, the operation of the facility was not stopped, and the environmental disaster has repeated itself.
TОО «ATAMEKEN-AGRO»
Thus, TОО «Atameken-Agro» (growing cereals and leguminous crops, including seed production), occupying about 100 thousand hectares of share land, was registered in 2004. The first head is Sailaubai Aubakirov. The company has over 2,500 founders, presumably, shareholders.
TОО has a medium degree of risk in terms of tax obligations. For 2023, the company paid 318.8 million tenge in taxes (in 2022 – 414 million tenge, in 2021 – 212 million tenge, in 2020 – 141.4 million tenge).
In 2018, TОО «Atameken-Agro» received 3 administrative fines totalling 3.6 million tenge for failure to comply with a fire safety order at facilities in three villages in the Zhambyl district of the North Kazakhstan region (the TОО's facilities were not equipped with automatic fire alarm systems).
In 2019, TОО received an administrative fine of 1.2 million tenge for failure to comply with an order from the state inspector for land use and protection, namely the company did not acquire livestock within the deadline, considering the permissible load rate on the total pasture area (23.2 thousand hectares).
In 2021, the company received a fine of 438 thousand tenge for carrying out activities without complying with sanitary rules - the catering facility in the village of Blagoveshchenka was operating without a sanitary-epidemiological conclusion and without submitting a notification of commencement of activities.
In 2022, TОО «Atameken-Agro» failed to comply with an order from the regional Department of Ecology, namely, the storage and warehousing of toxic chemicals was carried out without a positive conclusion from mandatory state environmental expertise, for which the company was fined 1.5 million tenge.
In the same year, TОО failed to comply with an order from the regional Department of Emergency Situations at a facility in the village of Blagoveshchenka, for which it was also fined 1.5 million tenge.
TОО «SHATILO I K»
Another company under the authority of JSC «Atameken-Agro» and occupying about 60.7 thousand hectares of share land in the North Kazakhstan region is TОО «Shatilo i K» (growing cereals and leguminous crops, including seed production). TОО was registered in 2004. The first head is Oleg Adam. The company has over 1,700 shareholders.
TОО «Shatilo i K» has a medium degree of risk in terms of tax obligations. For 2023, the company paid 327 million tenge in taxes (in 2022 – 288 million tenge, in 2021 – 207 million tenge, in 2020 – 152 million tenge).
In 2019, TОО was fined 505 thousand tenge for failure to comply with an order from the Department of Emergency Situations of the Zhambyl district, North Kazakhstan region. In 2020, the company similarly failed to comply with an order from the Department of State Architectural and Construction Control and Licensing of the Akimat of the North Kazakhstan region, for which it was fined 1.4 million tenge.
In December 2020, over 80 tonnes of grain were stolen from the grain receiving enterprise of TОО «Shatilo i K». One of the managers of the same enterprise was detained on suspicion of committing the theft. The amount of damage caused was over 23 million tenge. It was noted that at the beginning of December, over 190 tonnes of grain were also stolen from the enterprise's warehouses in a similar manner.
In October 2021, it became known that TОО «Shatilo i K» had submitted an application for subsidies for breeding and pedigree work a year earlier. It was reported that the employee processing the application made a mistake – they indicated an inflated number of livestock. The application was accepted and the money was received a few days later, but the company did not attach any importance to this.
Later, the enterprise was subjected to an inspection of the legality of receiving these subsidies, as a result of which it was found that subsidies had been received for already sold livestock. The farm acknowledged its mistake and returned about 20 million tenge to the state. However, a criminal case was nevertheless initiated against the head of TОО, Oleg Adam, and the livestock technician.
To be continued…