Kazakhstan partners with Belgium to expand potato processing and value-added exports

Kazakhstan plans to expand its potato processing capacity and exports of value-added products through cooperation with Belgium, with a memorandum signed by the Union of Potato and Vegetable Growers of Kazakhstan, Eurasian Group AG and Belgian machinery maker DeWulf NV at the Kazakhstan–Belgium Business Council attended by President Tokayev and King Philippe.

Kazakhstan plans to expand its potato processing capacity and exports of value-added products through cooperation with Belgium, FreshPlaza reports, citing EastFruit and APK Novosti.

A memorandum was signed by the Union of Potato and Vegetable Growers of Kazakhstan, Eurasian Group AG, and the Belgian company DeWulf NV during the fourth Kazakhstan-Belgium Business Council meeting, attended by Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Belgian King Philippe — a level of representation that signals the agreement is meant as more than a commercial contract.

The agreement covers long-term cooperation in potato cultivation and processing, agricultural technology adoption, and investment. Kazakhstan intends to adopt elements of Belgium’s agro-industrial cluster model, which integrates processing facilities, growers, research institutions and seed companies to improve yields, product quality and competitiveness.

Planned activities include establishing potato processing facilities, developing agricultural clusters, upgrading cultivation and storage systems, and expanding domestic seed multiplication. The cooperation will also focus on introducing higher-yielding potato varieties with resistance to diseases and adverse weather conditions — two constraints that have historically capped Central Asian yields well below north-western European levels.

These initiatives aim to reduce Kazakhstan’s reliance on raw potato exports by expanding domestic processing and increasing the share of value-added products. The projects are also expected to attract investment and strengthen Kazakhstan’s position in international potato markets.

The choice of Belgium as a partner is logical. Belgium is the world’s largest exporter of frozen potato products and home to both a dense processing industry and machinery manufacturers such as DeWulf, whose harvesters and handling equipment are a reference standard in industrial potato production. For Kazakhstan, importing the cluster model means importing not just machines but the organisational links between breeders, seed multipliers, growers and processors that make the Belgian chain work.

For the wider Central Asian potato economy, the memorandum is another sign of the region moving up the value chain. Neighbouring Kyrgyzstan has just reported a harvest up nearly 49 per cent year on year, and regional governments increasingly frame potatoes not as a subsistence crop but as an export industry. If the Kazakh plans materialise, the region could shift from exporting raw tubers to neighbouring markets towards shipping processed products — frozen, dehydrated or starch — to a much wider geography.

The timeline, investment volumes and the first processing sites have not been disclosed. How quickly the memorandum converts into concrete projects will become clear as the parties announce follow-up steps under the Business Council framework. What is already visible is the political backing: when a president and a king attend the signing, the file moves from the agricultural ministry’s in-tray to the level of state economic strategy.