Glass-grown vegetables to be supplied to Astana by 2013

Astana will be fully supplied with local glass-grown vegetables by 2013, KazTAG reports citing Astana Akim (Mayor) Imangali Tasmagambetov. “Lands for construction of another four greenhouses were allotted at the territory of the city. By 2013 they will be producing 3,200 tons of glass-grown vegetables per year and will help Astana city forget about shortages of vegetables,” he wrote in his blog, answering the question about high prices for cucumbers and tomatoes in Astana. According to Astana resident, cucumbers cost 1,555 tenge ($10.5) and tomatoes cost 835 tenge ($5.6) in one of the city’s supermarkets. Tasmagambetov also explained that the city administration cannot prevent cucumbers and tomatoes prices from growing because of the seasonality and cost of importing of these goods from Uzbekistan and China. “In March we will have a real tool for harnessing the inflation in this group of goods,” Akim wrote. He explained that the authorities created a greenhouse complex AstanaEcoStandard with production capacity of 1.9 tons a year. “Tomatoes and cucumbers are planted there; the first harvest is expected in March,” he noted.