Kazakh food exhibited in Hong Kong for first time ever

BEIJING-HONG KONG. KAZINFORM Today, Kazakh Invest National Company has presented Kazakhstan's food export potential in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, for the first time in Southeast Asia, Kazinform special correspondent in China reports.

At the large-scale Hong Kong Food Expo, with the assistance of the Kazakh Consulate General, 5 leading domestic producers exhibited ice cream, honey, dry mare milk, sunflower oil, and cooled mutton.

According to representative of Eurasia Invest LLP Galymzhan Meirambekov, the Hong Kong market opens up great opportunities for exporting Kazakhstan-made dry mare milk for two reasons.

"First, it is sufficient to obtain a license for importing this product into this market. Secondly, Hong Kong is a tourist metropolis, therefore, travelers from every corner of the world gather here and will eventually see on the shelves and purchase our products," he said.

Director of the Export Development and Promotion Department of the Kazakh Investment and Development Ministry Anuar Chuzhegulov said that this year, in addition to Hong Kong, KAZAKH INVEST will arrange several events to promote "Made in Kazakhstan" products in the Chinese market in the cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai, Urumqi, and Beijing.

"For Kazakhstan, Hong Kong is a kind of a bridge between Europe and Asia, an attractive export market with the population over 7 million, with the yearly import of foods exceeding $20 billion. Chinese consumers have already got to know the high-quality and ecologically clean Kazakh products. Almost all the products of our participants have been listed in the register of suppliers to China. Now, analogous work is underway for Hong Kong," he stressed.

Recall that the sales turnover between Kazakhstan and Hong Kong, according to the results of 2016, amounted to $19.4 million, of which $10.3 million and $9.1 million are exports and imports respectively.

Hong Kong Food Expo is one of the largest and most popular sales exhibitions in Asia held in Hong Kong for the 28th time. This year, over 1,500 producers from 26 countries are participating in the event. 20 countries, including Kazakhstan, Ukraine, the USA, India, Belarus, Iran, South Korea, Poland, and other countries, presented their national pavilions at the Expo.