The Ministry of Agriculture continues to support domestic horse breeders

Thanks to government support and subsidies, the number of horses in the Republic exceeded the Soviet period by 1.7 times, the press service of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan reports.

In 1991, there were about 1.7 million horses in all categories of farms in Kazakhstan. Then, during the transition to the market economy, the number of animals was sharply reduced, and by 2000 there were less than a million animals left in the country.

The gradual recovery of the stock began in 2002, when the industry began to be supported by the state. At the same time, government support in the form of subsidies for the purchase of breeding horses, the production of kumys and horsemeat was launched in 2011.

As a result of the measures taken, the number of horses in Kazakhstan increased to 2.9 million (as of the beginning of this year). This is 1.7 times more than the number of animals in 1991 and almost 3 times more than in 2000. Accordingly, production of horsemeat and mare's milk has considerably increased, the quantity of breeding horses has also grown. Since 2011, when the government began subsidizing purchases, their share has increased by 1.9 times.

Today the state continues to support domestic commodity producers engaged in horse breeding. In particular, they are provided with::

• subsidizing the acquired breeding stallions-producers with a standard subsidy of 100 thousand tenge per head;
• cheaper cost of mare's milk production with a subsidy rate of 60 tenge per kg;
• cheapening of the cost of acquisition and procurement of fodder for the breeding stock of horses with a subsidy rate of 20 thousand tenge per head;
• subsidizing of investments for purchase of fodder equipment and equipment for breeding of horses with the reimbursement rate of 25%;
• subsidizing of interest rates by 10% on loans and leasing.

All these support measures are based on proposals by horse breeders themselves and industry associations. In 2019 they were used by 4.7 thousand horse breeding farms.

It should also be added that in addition to the above support measures, preferential loans at 6% per annum have been developed for horse breeders for a period of up to 10 years with the intended purpose of "purchasing horses". The program "Kulan" has been in operation since 2016. 512 farms received money for the purchase of 12 thousand heads in 2018, last year 1440 farms took light loans for the purchase of more than 40 thousand horses. It is expected that in 2020 the circle of recipients of financial support will significantly expand.

Meanwhile, it should be noted that horsemeat is a product oriented only at the domestic market. There are practically no export markets. In this regard, it is worth mentioning a subject that has caused different opinions in the society.

For an efficient economy, it is crucial for the state to maintain a balance between the needs of the domestic market and the consumer requirements of neighboring countries.

Subsidies to pork production in Kazakhstan have ceased since 2018, which resulted in the reduction of total state support to pork production by half. To date, there are only two subsidy items left in the industry: reimbursement of selection and breeding costs and substitution of imported breeding stock for breeding pigs. However, over the entire last year only one farm has benefited from this subsidy, which brought in only 6 pigs.

For comparison, in 1991 there were 2.9 million pigs in Kazakhstan, and in 2018 - only 800 thousand.

However, it should be noted that by 2019 the downward trend in the number of pigs in Kazakhstan has stopped and now there is an increase, which immediately affected the increase in pork exports. Thus, if in 2017 Kazakhstan sold about 300 tons of meat abroad, last year - almost 800 tons. It is noteworthy that during the same period the share of domestic pork consumption decreased by 8%.

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