For the years 2022-2023, 57,449 agricultural producers in Kazakhstan received subsidies totalling 943 billion tenge. However, a significant portion of these funds went to large agricultural holdings, whose owners are on the Forbes.kz list.
According to Ratel.kz, the leader among recipients was the Aitas holding, the largest conglomerate in the country's agro-industrial sector, which includes more than 15 enterprises involved in the production, processing, and sale of poultry meat.
Three of these – Makinskaya Poultry Farm LLP, Ust-Kamenogorsk Poultry Farm JSC, and Nauryz Agro LTD LLP – received 29.3 billion tenge in subsidies, which constitutes 3.1% of the total state support.
According to Forbes.kz, the holding is among the 50 largest private companies in Kazakhstan. In 2022, it was ranked 28th on the list, and in 2023 it was ranked 27th. The founder of the holding, Serik Tolukpaev, ranks 42nd among the 50 richest businessmen in Kazakhstan.
In second place among subsidy recipients was the agricultural holding Atameken Agro JSC, which was allocated 12.1 billion tenge (1.3% of the total subsidies). According to Forbes.kz, in 2022 the holding was ranked 38th in the ranking of the 50 largest private companies in Kazakhstan, and in 2023 it was ranked 40th. Among its shareholders are Amir Islamov (via K-Invest Securities LLP), the Unified Accumulative Pension Fund (UAPF), and other minority shareholders.
The third position is held by Alel Agro JSC, which received 10.6 billion tenge (1.1% of total subsidies) from the state for the years 2022-2023.
"The founders are Singapore's Asadel Partners PEF PTE LTD – 45.8%, owned by the Seisembayev family (41st place in the ranking of the richest businessmen of Forbes Kazakhstan 2021), Zell Invest LLP – 42.31%, and Raziya Zhatakpaeva – 9.47%", the statement said.
Other major subsidy recipients included: Rodina Agricultural Firm LLP – 4.9 billion tenge (founder – Ivan Sauer, 63rd place in the ranking of the richest businessmen of Forbes Kazakhstan 2024); BioOperations LLP – 4.1 billion tenge (one of the owners, Erlan Baimuratov, is also one of the founders of Bayan Sulu JSC, 65th place in the ranking); Prima QUS LLP – 3.3 billion tenge (founders – Alexei Zalevsky, Aleksandr Garber – No. 33 in the 2024 ranking).
Despite the substantial sums of subsidies, their social effectiveness raises serious questions. It is reported that more than half of the amount received was allocated to reduce the cost of poultry meat production, in order to provide the domestic market with a socially significant food product (SSFP).
As it became known, Ust-Kamenogorsk Poultry Farm JSC and Makinskaya Poultry Farm LLP, which are part of the Aitas holding, were obliged to supply the country's shelves with SSFP in the form of cheap chicken thighs and drumsticks with meat.
However, the Ust-Kamenogorsk court established that the products were sold through an affiliated enterprise, Aitas meat distribution, with a trade margin of 62.1%, whereas the permissible level for socially significant goods should not exceed 15%. Such schemes led to an increase in the cost of poultry meat on its way to the shelf: in 2022 it rose by 34%, and in 2023 by 47%.
It is noted that as a result, chicken produced in Kazakhstan turned out to be more expensive than imported chicken. In December 2022, domestic chicken was 1.6 times more expensive than foreign chicken, and by the current time, the difference has increased to 100 percent.
The report from the Supreme Audit Chamber states that despite subsidies amounting to 34 billion tenge, which were allocated to reduce the cost of chicken meat, production did not cover even 80% of domestic market demand. Moreover, a significant portion of the production is exported abroad, and at lower prices than on the domestic market.
For example, in 2023, a certain Kazakhstani company exported meat to Russia at a price that was 33.5% cheaper than on the domestic market. At the same time, it became known that this year the Aitas holding signed a contract to supply chicken meat to China for $100 million.