On 18 August, a meeting on food security was held, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, from 2021 to 2024, the volume of gross output in the industry increased by 11.3% – from 7.5 to 8.3 trillion tenge. Crop production grew by 14% over this period, and livestock farming by 5.6%. In the first half of this year, growth amounted to 3.7%, reaching 1.8 trillion tenge.
According to the government press service, the country's sown area has increased to 23.6 million hectares, which is 322,800 hectares more than last year's figure. At the same time, the area under grain and leguminous crops decreased by 629,900 hectares, while plantings of socially significant and highly profitable crops, including oilseeds and potatoes, expanded. Oilseeds now occupy almost 4 million hectares (+1,055,500 hectares), and potatoes 131,200 hectares (+9,300 hectares).
In the first half of the year, the livestock sector saw the cattle population increase by 8.3% (8.8 million head), sheep and goats by 0.8% (21.5 million head), horses by 4.7% (4.6 million head), and poultry by 2.7% (47.7 million head).
Growth is also recorded in production: meat in carcass weight amounted to 529,900 tonnes (+1.5%), poultry meat to 187,700 tonnes (+4.9%), milk to 1.8 million tonnes (+7%), and chicken eggs to 2.2 billion units (+0.9%).
Growth is also observed in the processing industry. Food production increased by 10.5%, to 1.8 trillion tenge. Volumes of processed milk, meat, flour, pasta, vegetable oil and butter increased.
"Kazakhstan provides itself with staple foods by 80–100% or more. Meat, milk, eggs, vegetables, flour – all of these are produced in sufficient volume to meet the needs of our country's residents. At the same time, imports continue for poultry meat, sausages, cheeses, sugar and fish," noted Vice-Minister of Agriculture Yermek Kenzhekhanuly.
It became known that from 2022 to 2024, 17 poultry farms for meat production with a capacity of 144,000 tonnes were commissioned in the country. This made it possible to increase the level of self-sufficiency in poultry meat from 67% to 79%. A further 41 enterprises are planned to be launched by 2028.
Extensive work has also been carried out in the dairy sector in recent years: while in 2019 there were 19 dairy farms in operation, today there are already 69, with another 47 under construction. According to ministry calculations, after all facilities are brought online, milk production will increase by 600,000 tonnes per year, which will fully cover the demand for cheeses and cottage cheese.
At the same time, the issue of prices and accessibility of food products remains key. First Vice-Minister of Trade Aizhan Bizhanova emphasised that the rate of price growth for socially significant goods has noticeably slowed. In April it was 1.6%, in May – 1%, in June – 0.7%, in July – 0.4%, and in the first two weeks of August – only 0.1%.
Kazakhstan also maintains the lowest prices among the EAEU countries for 15 items, including sunflower oil, cottage cheese, eggs, buckwheat, rice, flour and vegetables. For milk and beef, Kazakhstan is second only to Belarus, for chicken meat – Belarus and Russia, and for butter – Kyrgyzstan.
Alongside this, the government discussed new support measures. It is planned to limit the deferral period for payment for supplies to retail chains to 30 days, and also to introduce a public control system "Sapaly Onim". It is expected that this will allow citizens to record violations and send the information to the authorised bodies.
Following the meeting, Serik Zhumangarin gave the necessary instructions to accelerate work on ensuring the accessibility of Kazakhstani products for the country's residents.