To stabilize prices for vegetable products during the off-season, Kazakhstan plans to conclude forward purchases with neighboring countries. According to the portal ElDala.kz, Minister of Trade and Integration Bakhyt Sultanov said this on June 22 at a reporting meeting in front of the population.
“To ensure the stability of the domestic market and the projected volume of exports, we plan to carry out contract work with our neighbors, for example, with Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan. I am literally leaving for the Central Asian states today in order to work out forward agreements on mutual supply, for example, of the same potatoes, onions, carrots and cabbage, ”said the head of the Ministry of Trade.
The department expects that this will reduce the rush demand in the off-season, during which intermediaries "charge" prices. Business should get involved in this work, so a delegation will go to Tajikistan and Uzbekistan with the head of the Ministry of Trade. In turn, Kazakhstani producers will agree on the export of products after the harvest
“A preliminary analysis shows that during the period of mass harvesting, we can supply about 765 thousand tons of vegetables to neighboring countries. At the same time, we have counted, and will now discuss with our colleagues, in order to provide us with 280 thousand tons of imported early vegetables in the off-season, ”Bakhyt Sultanov said.
According to the calculations of the Ministry of Trade, in the implementation of contracts with neighbors, the dynamics of price fluctuations for vegetable products will be about 7-10%, maximum 20%, and not 2-3 times.
In general, Bakhyt Sultanov noted that during the pandemic, the introduced lockdowns affected trade in agricultural products to a lesser extent. At the same time, the rush purchases of basic food products by countries allowed Kazakhstan to increase the export of processed agricultural products by 18%.