Kazakhstan intends to increase sugar production by seven times

Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerbol Karashukeev told at a government meeting how sugar production will be increased in the country, Kazpravda.kz correspondent reports.

Yerbol Karashukeev said that the annual consumption of sugar in Kazakhstan is about 532,000 tons, 7% of which comes from domestic raw materials.

This, according to him, is due to small-scale production, lack of water for irrigation and manual labor in growing sugar beet, as well as depreciation of sugar factories, dumping prices by Russian producers.

“By solving the problem of water supply, expanding the sown area from 14.5 thousand hectares to 38 thousand hectares, technical equipment, as well as launching projects for the modernization and construction of a sugar plant with the infrastructure development of the industry, it is expected to increase the gross harvest from 332 thousand tons to 1.8 million tons. Consequently, it is expected to increase sugar production by 7 times - up to 254,000 tons, reduce sugar imports by 32%, which will increase the provision of the domestic market with domestically produced sugar from 7% to 43%,” the minister said.

According to him, in order to obtain the above results, state support is needed through the provision of subsidies and preferential loans for 5-6 years.