Tag Archives: agriculture

Agriculture investment rises in Kazakhstan

JAN. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan increased investment in its agriculture sector by 50%, in US dollar terms, in 2016, media reported quoting a senior official at KazAgroFinance. Tuleugazy Seisenovm described as general manager of Assets of the Inspection Department at the state-owned KazAgroFinance, said that the government had spent $686m on investments in agriculture this year compared to $446m in 2015. Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev has ordered his officials to diversify investment away from the dominating oil and gas sector.

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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)

Designing a yurt-shaped greenhouse for Kyrgyzstan

BISHKEK, JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tilek Toktogaziev has a vision. The 27-year-old Kyrgyz businessman wants to make farming more efficient and he wants to do it by turning the yurt, Kyrgyzstan’s national icon, into a greenhouse.

Or at least construct greenhouses in the shape of a yurt.

“We often copy models of greenhouses from the Koreans or the Dutch,” he told The Conway Bulletin (Jan. 6). “But they have their own climatic conditions. Even in cold times Kyrgyz people have survived in yurts.”

He has set about designing a greenhouse that will look and function like a yurt – the circular, heavy felt tent-like structure used by nomads to live in during the summer when their horses graze in lush valleys under snow-capped mountains.

Mr Toktogaziev has been building greenhouses since 2012, but it was only in 2016 that he thought of the yurt-shaped greenhouse.

“Out of season, local greenhouses cover 10% of market demand in Kyrgyzstan, whereas 90% of vegetables come from China and Uzbekistan,” he said, indicating market potential.

For now, though, Mr Toktogaziev wants to find foreign investors to help propel his concept onto the world market and also to educate Kyrgyz on the benefits of the greenhouse. He already has local investors and says the first greenhouse will be built in 2017.

It’s an uncertain road. What he is certain about, though, is keeping the national identity of the greenhouses.

“Local thermofelt (produced in a village near Bishkek) will be used to cover yurt-shaped greenhouse roof in nighttime to keep warmth,” he said.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Georgia sends first wool exports to Britain

TBILISI, JAN. 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia has started shipping wool to Britain, media reported, an important first step towards integrating its exports into the EU.

The Georgian Wool Company said it had exported 22 tonnes of wool to Britain in December and that it was preparing a second batch of 45 tonnes for export in January.

“Our British partners were satisfied with the first test shipment and placed an additional order,” Zaur Yuliev, a director at the Georgian Wool Company told Agenda.ge.

The deal is important to Georgia because it is the first animal product export to the EU. Georgia received permission to export wool to the EU a year ago and sees it as an important new market.

In July 2016 it signed an Association Agreement with the EU that was primarily aimed at helping it to export fruit, vegetable and other animal products to the EU. Georgian honey has been touted as a potentially major export.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Fruit exports rise in Azerbaijan

JAN. 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s agricultural exports in the first 11 months of 2016 totalled $381m, a rise of 21.6% from 2015, the fruit-inform.com website reported. Most of the export increase was in fruit and vegetables. Azerbaijan is a major regional fruit and vegetable exporter although its value pales in comparison to oil and gas export volumes. Still, although the volume is small, it is also important. Azerbaijan’s government has said that it wants to diversify the country’s economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Grain exports rise in Kazakhstan

DEC. 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has exported 7.9m tonnes of grain this so far this year, Kazakh deputy agriculture minister Kairat Aituganov said at a press conference, a 12% increase on 2015. Grain is an increasingly important part of the Kazakh economy. Overall, Mr Aituganov said that agricultural production in Kazakhstan had increased this year by 4.5%.

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(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)

Euro parliament agrees Uzbek cotton deal

DEC. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Parliament voted to renew a textile deal with Uzbekistan after dropping the agreement five years ago because of concerns over child labour, drawing anger from human rights groups who said that modern day slavery was being excused.

Under the EU-Uzbekistan trade deal, originally agreed in 1999 but suspended in 2011, tariffs on Uzbek cotton will be dropped. It is a major boost for Uzbek president Shavkat Mirziyoyev who appears to want to improve the country’s image after the death in September of Islam Karimov.

The vote was passed by 564 in favour versus 100 against the motion, with 41 abstentions.

Commenting on the vote, MEP Maria Arena, said: “This consent is the result of the progress and commitments made by Uzbekistan in the fight against forced and child labour. But as adult forced labour remains a strong concern, we will follow the situation closely and if there are serious human rights violations or any regress on these issues, MEPs will not hesitate to ask the Council and the Commission to suspend the entire partnership agreement.”

Last month the European Parliament’s influential International Trade Committee had voted to recommend that a deal was approved.

Uzbekistan has appeared to respond to pressure to clean up its employment issues. This year the UN’s International Labour Organisation monitored the harvest in Uzbekistan and said that while doctors and teachers were forced to work in the cotton fields, there were far few children working.

Cotton is a major cash earner for Uzbekistan. It is the fifth largest cotton producer in the world.

Human rights group, though, were less than impressed. “Adopting this Protocol now sends the wrong message to Tashkent,” Human Rights Watch, a New York-based group, said. “Do members want to be seen by Uzbekistan’s millions of victims of forced labour as the parliament that turned a blind eye to their suffering?”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Rostelmash to open plant in Uzbekistan

NOV. 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Rostselmash, a Russian manufacturer of agricultural equipment, said it plans to establish a plant in Uzbekistan. The Rostov-on-Don company plans to occupy the site that it operated during Soviet times in the township of Chirchiq, in the outskirts of Tashkent. Rostselmash had opened the Chirchiq factory and three other plants in Tashkent in the 1940s.

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(News report from Issue No. 307, published on Dec. 2 2016)

Azerbaijan increases its cotton harvest but analysts doubt ambitious target

NOV. 7 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan harvested 50,400 tonnes of raw cotton in 2016, a 66% increase on last year, its statistics committee said.

The rise is important to the Azerbaijani government because with oil prices low and the economy tipping into recession it has revived promises to develop cotton.

In the Soviet Union, before its second oil boom in the late 1990s and early 2000s, cotton had accounted for up to 25% of Azerbaijan’s income. Investment, though, dropped away once oil became the focus.

“Next year, cotton production will lead to the creation of more than 100,000 jobs. As we expand our acre- age, this figure will grow,” President Ilham Aliyev said during a cotton- development conference in Sabirabad, Azerbaijan, on Sept. 17.

Azerbaijani authorities want to expand the cotton fields within three years by 500%, from the current 50,000 hectares. Even if Azerbaijan hits this target it will still be a fraction of the size of the world’s major cotton producing countries. Uzbekistan has around 1.25b hectares of cotton fields.

Economists, though, are sceptical on whether white gold – as cotton is dubbed in Azerbaijan – can fill the gap left by the drop in energy prices. Last year, they pointed out, cotton produced earned just $29m.

Ziya Mammadbayli, a Baku-based analyst, said that Azerbaijan didn’t even have the capacity to pick a bigger cotton harvest without forced labour.

“With low average salaries and without new equipment the has government started to send primary school teachers and doctors to cotton fields to pick it,” he told The Bulletin.

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)

EBRD gives loans to Tajik farmers

OCT. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EBRD and the EU will partner to implement a 42m euro ($46.5m) programme to support farming in Tajikistan. A first tranche of 15m euros was provided to Arvand, a microfinance organisation, to make available to small agri- business borrowers. The EBRD, which is contributing 20m euros to the project, said that another development bank will soon join the project. Despite being the largest employer, the agricultural sector in Tajikistan is lacking investment and planning.

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(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)

Cotton exports rise in Uzbekistan

OCT. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — At its annual cotton fair, Uzbekistan reportedly signed deals to export finished cotton worth $1.3m, up from $800m in 2015, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s most important exports. Many Western brands refuse to use Uzbek cotton in their garments because of its association with child labour.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 301, published on Oct. 21 2016)