EastFruit analysts draw attention to the increasing frequency of media reports about Kazakhstan’s export successes in the field of vegetables. This is somewhat surprising, because it is far from reality, and it is appropriate to say that Kazakhstan is the largest market for vegetables in Central Asia!
Most other countries in Central Asia have either large positive vegetable trade balances or balanced trade, but Kazakhstan has always been a net importer. Moreover, the negative balance of trade in vegetables in Kazakhstan has had a clear negative trend over the past few years.
Let’s figure it out. First, let’s look at what is happening in the exports of vegetables from Kazakhstan. Exports of vegetables and potatoes from Kazakhstan over the past 5 years (2018-2022) have indeed had growth dynamics. On average, exports grew by 2.5% or US $1.7 million over the year and averaged US $65.8 million per year. It seems not bad, right? But wait for the information on imports!
The export structure looked quite simple – three crops: potatoes, tomatoes and onions provided 77% of all export earnings.
Also among Kazakhstan’s relatively large export items are cabbage, cucumber, and carrots, although here the export volumes were relatively small in relation to the exports of the vegetables indicated on the above graph.
The geography of Kazakhstan’s exports of vegetables and potatoes was even simpler than the structure of exports. More than half of the products were exported to Russia and 32% to Uzbekistan. The remaining countries, among which only Turkmenistan and Belarus can be distinguished, bought very small volumes of Kazakh products.
For more information: east-fruit.com