Kazakhstan: The Customs Duties for Food Imports to Increase

Kazakhstan to increase the customs duty rates for some types of food products, imported to the country, RIAN reports. The tariffs to be raised to those analogous types of food that are produced domestically, Akylbek Kuribashev, the Minister of Agriculture, announced after the end of Security Council session. This measure aims at protecting the domestic market from imports and supporting the local producers.

Moreover, from now on the budget will subsidize only the output that goes through processing level: "This way, we would like to employ the capacities of processing plants", the Minister noted. According to agricultural ministry, Kazakhstan imports about 40 percent of dairy products, 20 percent of meat products and about 43 percent of horticultural products.

The President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev set a task to develop agriculture and increase its share in GDP, arguing that the development of agriculture is necessary to ensure domestic security. Nazarbayev admitted that "for the first time Kazakhstan puts agricultural sector as the priority" and he views that as strategic goal for the next 10 years.

It has to be mentioned that since 2003 over 500 billion tenge (about 3.5 billion US dollars) have been allocated for the development of agricultural sector. Yesterday, Vice-Minister of Agriculture informed that Kazakhstan is ready to provide foreign investors with 3.5 million hectares of agricultural land in order to attract funds in the development of agriculture. There is also a possibility to sell this land to foreign citizens – such deals are authorized by Land code of the republic.