Poultry farms of Kazakhstan ask the government to support the industry

Egg production in Kazakhstan has become unprofitable due to a sharp increase in production costs and containment of prices for end products. Losses incurred since the beginning of the year by egg poultry farms are estimated at 7 billion tenge. Poultry farmers have prepared a number of proposals to the government with a request to support the industry and help them reach the minimum level of profitability.

First of all, producers ask to replace eggs of category C1 with C2 in the basket of socially important food products. Thus, the state will cease to regulate prices for C1, in response, poultry farms are ready to voluntarily fix prices for C2.

This proposal has already found support in the Ministry of Agriculture, the final decision remains with the interdepartmental commission. Its importance for poultry farmers is that category C2 occupies 20% of the total production, and C1 - 50%.

Producers also propose to introduce temporary restrictions on the import of eggs from RUSSIA from May to August, when demand for this product falls in Kazakhstan.

“Imports from the Russian Federation and other countries are simply killing the Kazakh poultry industry. We can agree on this issue at the EAEU level,” said Maxim Bozhko, co-founder of the Shanyrak group of companies.

In Kazakhstan, there is no control over the supply of eggs from abroad. An importer who brought goods, for example, from Russia, is given 45 days to pay VAT, while he must voluntarily declare the volumes to the tax authorities. But not everyone pays the tax in good faith, so cheaper “gray” imports appear, which put pressure on the prices of responsible producers.

“We propose to fix the minimum price for customs reports for calculating VAT at the level of the cost of an egg. If the egg comes in cheaper from abroad, then VAT would still be calculated from the minimum price set in the customs rules. Then the cost of imported eggs will be higher, and this will cause less harm to our producers,” Maxim Bozhko said.