Kazakhstan poised to decrease prime cost of meat

Kazakhstan intends to decrease the prime cost of the meat it produces by 100-150 tenge ($0.60-0.80), Tengrinews reports citing KazAgro Chariman Dulat Aitzhanov. KazAgro is the government's arm managing the country's agricultural sector and working to improve its efficiency and competitiveness. "High prime cost of meat is a problem for Kazakhstan. The cost is driven by the cost of fatting and feeding. We are now working on that, we have hired exports from Russia to recalculate and redistribute the whole feeding diet. It will enable us to decrease the cost of meat by 100-150 tenge ($0.60-0.80) and become more competitive at the Russian market. We have sent our proposal to the Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan and the Ministry has supported it. Later we will probably specify the concrete projects we want them to support," Aitzhanov said at today's government meeting. He pointed out that the Kazakhstan views Russia, Moscow city in particular, as a promising market for its meat. "There political and economic aspects that have to be dealt with to get the Kazakh meat into the Russian market. We have had negotiations with the Trade Minister of the Moscow Government were they clearly stated that Russia needed premium-class meat from Kazakhstan: chilled beef, lamb and turkey. We are competitive with these kinds of meat both in terms of pricing and in terms of quality," Aitzhanov said. Earlier, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev called the Government to work hard to make Kazakhstan one of the leading exporters of meat, dairy products and other agricultural goods in the region. By Altynai Zhumzhumina