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From 2015 on, Kazakhstan’s poultry farmers have been facing difficulties in the sale of poultry meat and eggs, the President of the Union of Poultry Producers of Kazakhstan Ruslan Sharipov told Trend.

“There is an overstock of warehouse in many farms. The data for Feb. 2 this year, presented by poultry farms, show that there remain 11,000 metric tons of meat and 53 million eggs in the warehouses of farms,” Sharipov said, adding that 148,000 metric tons of poultry meat and 4.2 billion eggs were produced in 2014.

He explained that the problem of overstocking is related to the appearance of fairly cheap poultry products in supermarkets in Kazakhstan due to the fall of the Russian ruble.

“Large manufacturers from neighboring countries are dumping and trying to push Kazakh producers from their own market,” he said, adding, “It is of concern that the selling prices of products imported from Belarus, Russia and Ukraine and other countries are lower than the domestic ones.”

He noted that the price of the Russian poultry meat was 397 KZT per kg, and the price of one egg was 19 KZT till November 2014 ($1 – 184.45 KZT).

“And over the past three months from November 2014 till January 2015 the price of the poultry meat dropped to 280 KZT/kg, and eggs – to 14 KZT for one piece,” Sharipov said.

He added that the first cost of the production of the domestic poultry meat is about 400 KZT/kg, and eggs 13.8 KZT per one piece, while the selling prices range within 468 KZT/kg and 14-15 KZT per one piece respectively.

“The first cost of the domestic poultry products is affected by the lack of breeding base, veterinary drugs, premixes and more others, to be imported from other countries, which has a significant imprint on the selling price,” he added.

“The key role in the final pricing is played by intermediaries who trade in the markets. They mainly set the price policy, although they don’t bear any material load except for the delivery and storage of products,” he said.

Sharipov said that Kazakhstan’s poultry farmers are concerned about the inaction of Kazakhstan Agency for Protection of Competition and other services that have to keep track of unjustified rise in prices and the oversaturation of the trade chains of imported products.

He also said the government of Belarus adopted a draft law on Dec. 12, 2014 which said that the optimal ratio of imported and domestic goods in Belarus’s market should be approximately 20 percent to 80 percent.

Sharipov added that if Kazakhstan also introduces such a restriction, then Kazakh citizens could see in trade chains a large range of domestic natural products rather than the products of unknown origin at times not having naming and labelling.

“Now the poultry farmers have to reduce the volumes, and some are even suspending the production,” said Sharipov.

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