According to Mr. Temirzhan Zhalgasbayev, Director at Alatau Fruits Engineering, Kazakhstan, growers have been focusing on orchards intensification to increase the share of domestic apples in the market.
Mr. Zhalgasbayev said the areas under pome- and stonefruit crops total about 40,000 ha in Kazakhstan with 32,000 ha of this accounting for apple orchards. Meanwhile, the share of intensive orchards is currently not higher than 11%.
“Our goal is to reduce dependence on imported apples to minimal levels in the next 4 years and see Kazakhstan as an apple exporter”, he says. “To achieve the goal, the government has launched a program to stimulate establishing new intensive orchards and uprooting old and inefficient ones. The plans are to see the share of intensive orchards grow to 55% by 2020. This will enable to significantly increase production volumes and the share of domestic apples in the market with imports being ousted”.
Mr. Zhalgasbayev estimates the current market share of imported apples at about 55%. The governmental program plans for it to fall to 5% by 2020. In addition, a rise in production will enable Kazakhstan both to satisfy the internal market demand and enter new export markets.
“According to the official data, Kazakhstan has exported a miserly part of domestically grown apples so far, and almost all volumes are sold in the internal market. Exports totaled just 1,100 tons in 2015. Production intensification and growth will enable to raise export volumes to 450,000 tons by 2020”, Mr. Zhalgasbayev says.
He sees Russia and China as potential importers of Kazakhstani apples. In addition, such a policy will enable Kazakhstan to increase production of fruit juice concentrates; therefore, imports of those products are expected to fall by 70% in the next 4 years.
Source: fruit-inform.com
