The government of Kazakhstan has launched several measures to help foster the growth of the poultry industry within the country's borders, so reducing reliance on imports, that will see output double by 2020.
The local poultry industry, like others, has undergone significant change in the post-Soviet era, however, there is still room for significant growth and modernization. The need to boost home production, however, has become increasingly pressing as the country opens its market through a variety of trade agreements.
Difficult 2013
Poultry meat and egg production in the country have experienced steady growth since the mid-1990s.
However, growth in the Kazakhstan poultry industry is thought to have been stagnant last year, with total output estimated at 125,000 metric tons, up slightly from 2012's 123,000 metric tons, reports the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service. 2012 saw production increase by 20 percent, but high feed costs and cheap imports are thought to have since dented growth in home output significantly.
Against this background, the government is offering several stimuli to the poultry industry with the goal of raising output to 246,000 tons by 2020.
Change and modernization
As in other former Soviet countries, Kazakh poultry production is shifting from backyard/household production to large and more modern agricultural enterprises. By the end of 2012, 61 percent of all poultry in Kazakhstan was produced in large agricultural enterprises, a 48 percent increase in comparison with 2007. Yet despite this change, the country lags behind some other former Soviet countries. Russia, for example, now produces 90 percent in modern facilities.
Agricultural Development Program
To help speed the pace of change, the country's Ministry of Agriculture embarked on a seven-year Agricultural Development Program last year. Under the program, the country is aiming to produce 246,000 tons of broiler meat by 2020.
The program, introduced to modernize overall agricultural production and to make it more competitive in the international arena, sets targets for procuring subsidized day-old chicks and hatching eggs. For subsidized broiler chicks, the goal is to increase the number from 287,000 to 433,800 by 2020 and for layer chicks from 737,000 to 1,044,000 by 2020. For hatching eggs, the goal is to go from 4.3 million eggs annually to 5.1 million by 2020.
Like poultry producers in other countries, the Kazakhstan poultry industry has had to work with recent high feed costs, however producers in Kazakhstan have other problems that need to be overcome.
Issues identified by the Ministry of Agriculture include a lack of qualified workers as well as underused and out-of-date buildings. In addition, production costs are also seen as high not only because of the price of feed but also because of energy tariffs and in the cost of genetics. There is a lack of local cross breeds for meat and egg production, making the country dependent on imported breeds of grandparent, parent and final crosses.
The ministry also has identified that local studies on technology and feeding are poorly developed and that there is a lack of high-quality, low-cost veterinary medicines.
In an attempt to improve the sector's position, the Ministry has a adopted several strategies.
These include:
- Providing inexpensive loans, including leasing and investment subsidies, to modernize existing poultry farms or to construct new facilities
- Helping to establish local breeding genetics for broilers
- Greater control of avian diseases and the adoption of international biosafety standards on poultry farms
- Protecting the market from low-quality imports and unfair trading practices
- Training
- An ongoing subsidy system moving from subsidizing feed to chilled poultry meat; and supplying farms with grain at a fixed price
Growing popularity
In 2012, Kazakhstanis consumed 315,000 tons of poultry meat, more than double that consumed in 2005. Per capita egg consumption in the country stood at 232 in the same year, up from 172 in 2005.
While poultry meat is the cheapest meat available in the country - chicken leg quarters cost only 50 percent the price of pork and 41 percent of the price of beef - and is increasingly consumed in the country, beef remains Kazakhstan's meat of choice. However, Muslims make up the majority of the population, and poultry is free from religious restrictions.
Kazakhstan imports approximately 60 percent of the poultry meat it consumes, with the US being the largest supplier. However, shipments from Russia and Ukraine are growing. Shipments from the latter two countries have, however, been the source of some concern with claims of dumping and adulteration, and quotas from all sources are expected to be reduced over the coming years.
With its neighbors expanding production and growing regional trade, the country is increasingly likely to source more imports locally rather than from further afield, however, disputes are not to be unexpected. Yet not all foreign involvement in the market is unwelcome and the government has encouraged investments in the country's poultry industry by overseas concerns.
