Ministry of Agriculture opens up Kazakh mutton exports to China
The event was attended by Tursyn Kabduldanov, the Chairman of the Veterinary Control and Supervision Committee of the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture, Azamat Saginbayev, the Director of the Livestock Department of the Ministry, and Kaiyrzhan Nauryzghaliyev, a member of the Board of Directors of Agricultural Holding "Zernovaya Industriya" (Grain Industry).
In the furtherance of the Head of State's instructions, the Ministry of Agriculture continues working on finding strategic niches in international markets and promoting domestic products. They, primarily, deal with neighboring countries in view of the availability of infrastructure and reduction of logistics costs for the Kazakh businesses.
In this regard, the Kazakh Ministry cooperates with the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People's Republic of China (AQSIQ) to take administrative and veterinary issues off the table to ensure unimpeded import of a number of agricultural products from Kazakhstan to China.
Earlier, the Ministry of Agriculture and AQSIQ signed protocols of phytosanitary requirements for export consignments of wheat, soybeans and wheat bran were signed with China.
On March 20, 2018, the official website of AQSIQ of China published information on the approval of the veterinary certificate (requirements) for frozen mutton and the license for importing the product from 9 regions of Kazakhstan. Frozen mutton will be exported by rail via Altynkol and Dostyk checkpoints.
In addition, during the 4th session of the Working Group on Cooperation (on 12th February 2018 in Astana), the sides agreed to hold in June 2018 a joint inspection of enterprises producing corn and barley.
In the near future, they will resume negotiations for approval of the requirements for exporting beef, sheepmeat and goatmeat, camels, etc. to China.
For now, the demand for lamb has increased. For instance, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and China are interested in purchasing our products. It should be mentioned that the above countries see the all-year-round supply of our products as the main purchasing condition.
According to the Statistics Committee, 895.4 tons of mutton totaling $4,068,600 was exported to Russia, Iran, Bahrain, the UAE, and Kuwait in 2017. Mutton exports have increased by 4.2 times in contrast to 2016.
The Ministry of Agriculture of Kazakhstan will continue work on increasing the export potential in all economically-viable directions, chiefly, for the benefit of Kazakh agricultural producers.
From 19 to 27 April 2017, Chinese experts conducted an inspection at Kazakhstan's sheepmeat and goatmeat enterprises.