«In the light of recent events, we can meet part of Russia’s needs for products that are no longer delivered from the West, for example, organic meat,» Uran Chekirbaev, head of the Department of Agro-Food Cluster of the Ministry of Agriculture, said at a meeting with the international multi-sectoral business mission of Russian companies to Kyrgyzstan.
According to him, the Kyrgyz Republic exported agricultural products worth $134 million (fruits, vegetables, dairy products and fish) to the Russian Federation in 2021. The volume of imports of agricultural products from Russia is estimated at about $250 million. Cereal products and vegetable oil were mainly imported.
«Ensuring food security is one of the key tasks of the Ministry of Agriculture. An important task is clustering of the agro-industrial complex. In this part, we need to introduce digitalization, and cooperation with the Russian Federation could facilitate this. We want to increase the supply of fruits, vegetables, cheese and trout to Russia,» Uran Chekirbaev said.
He added that 13 trade and logistics centers and about 400 fruit and vegetable storage facilities are currently operating in Kyrgyzstan. Four trade and logistics centers and two wholesale distribution centers are being built together with the Asian Development Bank.
«We invite Russian companies to participate in this project so that you can have such facilities here,» Uran Chekirbaev said.
Manas Belosharov, General Director of Kyrgyzcentrproduct LLC, noted that the Kyrgyz Republic needs to competently use its advantages in agriculture. The country does not have enough land to grow millions of tons of wheat, but it is possible to produce a wide range of other in-demand products.
«We need to invest in processing, sell products, not raw materials. It is possible to compete effectively with them in the markets,» he stressed.
The business mission was organized by the Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund together with the Russian Export Center. It attracted more than 100 companies from Russia.
