Kazakhstan poultry farmers lament lack of state support

The negative conjuncture at the Kazakhstan poultry market, as well as price increases for the main components compound feed, fuel and energy is bringing heavy problems to a number of the country’s poultry farms, a report of the Union of Poultry farmers of Kazakhstan states.

Representatives of the organisation have appealed to the government to increase the volume of subsidies to poultry farms by 50% compared to the current rate.

“Implementation of this proposal can be made through the redeployment of funds in local budgets provided for the subsidising of the other sectors. Such an approach does not require any additional funds from the state budget,” the organisation stated in a press release.

Ministerial support for poultry sector

This initiative has already been supported by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic, Bakytzhan Sagintayev and the country’s Prime Minister, Karim Massimov.

Experts have pointed out that the main problem of the country’s poultry industry is associated with cheap poultry imports from Russia. Over the last year the Russian ruble has devaluated by 70% against the US dollar, while Kazakhstan’s Tenge lost only 15%. As a result Russian production become more competitive on price, compared to the poultry of local manufacturers.

Restrictions on Russian poultry

Due to this situation a number of representatives from the industry have called on the government not only to support the industry with money, but to also enter some restrictions on Russian poultry.