The American company Champion Foods intends to supply Pavlodar potatoes to foreign markets. The company is also considering the possibility of creating an enterprise for processing agricultural products on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. This was reported by ElDala.kz with reference to the press service of the national company KAZAKH INVEST.
Potatoes are the first direction that investors are ready to start working with. They met with local farmers and discussed the possibility of increasing the production of special varieties of potatoes. On 15 thousand hectares of irrigated land, large farms already produce more than 500 thousand tons of potatoes a year. Pavlodar farmers have the necessary equipment, experience, resources, and they are ready to increase production capacity.
In turn, Champion Foods is considering localization opportunities, and also intends to support the organization of systemic food exports from Kazakhstan to the markets of near and far abroad. The company is ready not only to provide offtake contracts (contracts for the purchase of products that have not yet been produced), but also to provide new technologies. Champion Foods plans to invest in infrastructure and train staff. Moreover, the Americans intend to share their knowledge of the markets, formulate marketing goals and jointly implement other projects in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
At a meeting with Vice President of Champion Foods Jonathan Buring, Akim of Pavlodar region Abylkair Skakov told the investor that a third of the country’s potatoes are grown in Pavlodar region.
“Pavlodar potatoes are a recognizable brand not only in Kazakhstan, but also far beyond its borders. Every year our region produces about 600,000 tons of ware potatoes, which is seven times the region’s needs. We create all conditions for high-quality storage of potatoes. The capacity of all potato storage facilities exceeds four hundred thousand tons. High quality is ensured by the presence in the region of 4 seed farms. One of the main priorities is the deep processing of manufactured products,” said the regional akim.
According to Galymzhan Matayev, a representative of the national company Kazakh Invest in the United States, Champion Foods is a leading supplier of products in Louisiana, Texas, US port cities, as well as in China, India and the Gulf countries.
“Currently, the company’s portfolio of orders is more than $2 billion. The main goal when establishing contacts with this company was that they are ready to organize the processing and systemic export of agricultural products and potatoes from Kazakhstan,” said Galymzhan Mataev.
The American company is interested in establishing logistics routes from Kazakhstan to foreign markets.
“We noted the similarity of climatic conditions and quality parameters of Pavlodar potatoes with some of our states. In this regard, we are ready to establish trade and marketing of Pavlodar products to foreign countries,” Jonathan Buring said.
Recall that during the visit of Vice President of Champion Foods Jonathan Buring to Kazakhstan, three memorandums of understanding were signed in the development and implementation of investment projects in Kazakhstan. On behalf of the Kazakh side, the documents were signed by representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan, KAZAKH INVEST and QazTrade CRTP.
“We are sure that this is only the beginning. And our joint actions in the future will create a historic alliance in the development of agriculture between Kazakhstan and the United States. We are ready to support Kazakh producers in organizing the systemic export of Made in Kazakhstan food products to the markets of near and far abroad,” said Jonathan Buring.
