Kazakh farmers are counting losses due to a ban on the export of potatoes, although this ban did not last long, and the government of the country has already canceled it, replacing such a decision with the introduction of an export quota, experts say Eastfruit.
In Kazakhstan, from January 22, 2022, a three-month ban on the export of potatoes and carrots began to operate. The country's government made this decision, fearing a shortage of these types of products and rising prices in the spring. However, the farmers were able to convince the interdepartmental commission open export within the set quota.
But more than 2 tons of potatoes, loaded into rail cars even before the export ban began, were literally stuck at the customs post at Saryagash station when leaving Kazakhstan at the Kazakh-Uzbek border. Due to the fact that railway wagons with potatoes have been standing for about two weeks, the potatoes are all frozen and practically unfit for consumption. According to exporters, if the weather warms up in the coming days, the potatoes will simply leak and rot.
According to the Kazakh edition Otyrar.kz, at the customs post at the Saryagash station (on the Kazakh-Uzbek border) for the second week now, 35 railway wagons with potatoes have been standing - over 2 tons. The potato crop was brought from Pavlodar (a region in the north-east of Kazakhstan).
According to the entrepreneurs, the first wagons, with a full package of permits, arrived here on January 15, 2022, but the goods were not allowed to cross the border.
One wagon with potatoes costs 12 million tenge ($27,6 thousand). Businessmen cannot unload the goods in Kazakhstan - they have already received partial payment from their Uzbek partners. In the event that the entire batch of potatoes stuck at the border becomes unusable, the losses of Kazakh exporters will amount to 420 million tenge ($967,2 thousand), i.e. about US$1 million.
As EastFruit experts have repeatedly noted, in 2021, potatoes have become the main import position of the fruit and vegetable sector of Uzbekistan over the past few years. Until 2016, the annual volume of potato imports did not exceed 50 thousand tons per year, and in 2017 the import of these products amounted to 194 thousand tons, from 2017 to 2021 the volume of imports increased by almost 3 times.
On According to State Committee on Statistics of Uzbekistan, in 2021 the country imported 560 thousand tons of potatoes, which is 109,1 thousand tons more than in 2020. At the same time, Kazakhstan became the largest supplier of these products in 2021. The total volume of imports in 2021 was distributed among the countries - the main suppliers of potatoes to Uzbekistan as follows:
Kazakhstan - 196 thousand tons;
Pakistan - 161 thousand tons;
Iran - 141 thousand tons;
Kyrgyzstan - 35 thousand tons;
Netherlands - 11 thousand tons;
Russia - 4,8 thousand tons;
Other countries - 11,2 thousand.