Minister of Trade and Integration Bakhyt Sultanov commented on the situation with sugar in Kazakhstan, reports El.kz.
"We have requested another 100,000 tons, in addition to the 350,000 tons that have already been accepted today. At the moment, the Ministry of Agriculture is holding negotiations and its calculations, the docking of indicative balances, and we will return to this issue later. On July 15, the next meeting of the EEC Council will be held in Belarus, and there we will further consider this issue. There are 350,000 tons now. We request sugar in other countries.
In the world, some of the major suppliers are Brazil, India and Vietnam. But India has also limited it, so we are holding negotiations," Bakhyt Sultanov said on the sidelines of a meeting of the Government of Kazakhstan.
According to him, usually factories self purchase their raw materials.
"The market situation was such that there were 70 percent of imports, and it was cheaper for them to buy in Russia than to carry sugar from Brazil. But since now we are faced with the restrictions, so we have to change the logistics.
In order to further develop own production, it is necessary to develop farms that produce sugar-containing beets. This is quite a difficult job, the Ministry of Agriculture is engaged in this," he said.