The insight collected by The Conway Bulletin’s correspondent in Bishkek, undermines claims by President Almazbek Atambayev that joining the EEU in August was a positive move for Kyrgyzstan.

Sergey Ponomarev, head of the business lobby group AMTSS and a former PM adviser, said that cheaper Belarusian goods had hit Kyrgyzstan’s key export market in neighbouring Kazakhstan.

“In Belarus, prices for animal feed are largely subsidised by the state, which makes their products cheaper on the Kazakh market,” he said. Mr Ponomarev said that the Belarus government subsidises its farmers’ animal feed, something the Kyrgyz government doesn’t do.

Data released by Kyrgyzstan’s state statistics committee last month showed that in 2015 exports of clothes fell by 50%, fruit and vegetables exports fell by a third and tobacco exports by 28%.

This has partly to do with the worsening economic conditions in the region but also because of the more competitive export markets created by the EEU.

Tilek Toktogaziyev, the owner of a greenhouse in Bishkek. which sells various fruit, vegetables and berries, said: “Local farmers cannot trade their vegetables, and some of them have stopped farming altogether.”

Previously, business owners have complained of extra red tape after joining the EEU but they hadn’t complained of excessive competition.

One business owner, though, was more positive. Dastan Omuraliev, the manager of Organic, a company producing fruit juices, said: “With entering the Eurasian Economic Union, it became easier to pass our goods through the Kazakh border.”