Kazakhstan intends to conquer the markets of several priority countries with its meat products - beef and mutton. China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam are classified as priority markets. However, it seems that on this way our republic will face unprecedented competition with almost the entire world. "A narrow neck" is the so-called pastoral issue, plus a poor transport infrastructure. Therefore, in the beginning, the price will be the only competitive advantage.

Pasture efficiency

Experts have long known that there is an abundance of pasture land in Kazakhstan. According to them, the country occupies the fifth place in the world, behind only China, Australia, the USA and Brazil. However, there is practically no economic effect from such a high place. Officially, only 58 million hectares of 188 million hectares of pastures are used. Although this figure is simply breathtaking. For comparison, Canada, with its 15 million hectares of pasture land, grows 80 kg of beef per hectare, Uruguay collects 45 kg of meat per hectare for 14 million hectares, and New Zealand, with only 11 million hectares, produces more than 60 kg of meat per hectare..

By the way, these countries export from 20% to 60% of all produced beef abroad, or from 400 thousand to 600 thousand tons of meat annually. And here it will be difficult to make a discount on the climate taking into account the presence in the rating of Canada. That is why our result is less than 5 kg per hectare and last year's export of only 800 kg of beef abroad - not otherwise low labor productivity and even the "official" hectares of pastures can not be explained.

For example, Australia also does not have the highest labor productivity per hectare - about 10 kg, but this mainland state involves 350 million hectares of grazing land in production. Therefore, the export is 2-3 million tons per year.

In our country, if we take one Akmola region, where we carry out the appropriate revision of the land, 118 farmers were found in the Birzhan sal area, which collected pastures, but do not correspond to the livestock and pasture of livestock. An audit of 351 farms in the Erementau district, 142 farms in the Akkol district and 50 in the Korgalzhinsky district is being carried out.

$ 100 for an Australian farmer

As for logistics and the price offer of Kazakhstan, the main competitors here are first of all Australian farmers. No, of course, we will compete with everyone, including Paraguayan, Ukrainian and Somali. But if we consider such a clear example as the delivery to China, which we call "priority country number one," then we will somehow have to beat the Australians.

The export of beef and lamb in the world is divided into three components: the sale of animals directly, as well as chilled and frozen meat.

So, one live Kazakh goby for slaughter on the border with China will cost $ 1605, whereas for the Australian bull-calves, the Chinese pay $ 1800. The difference of $ 200 from one head is very significant. But China imported and continues to import livestock from two countries: 67% from Australia and 33% from New Zealand, 100% from Australia. 100% of chilled high-quality beef from China is imported from Australia, frozen - partly from the same country, in part from Brazil, Uruguay and Canada. Chilled and frozen mutton entirely enters the Chinese market from two states - Australia and New Zealand.

The scale of the competitive advantages of this continent is indicated by the fact that Australian farmers have firmly captured the Vietnamese market for all kinds of beef. Vietnam is another priority country on our list. Australians carry out a colossal sale to Japan and South Korea, as well as to priority Saudi Arabia and Iran. And they even sell the chilled and frozen mutton to the European Union, which is not the most popular in this region of the world, almost completely blocking the need of 28 European countries to import this kind of meat.

That is, we will have to learn how to compete with Australians not only for price, but also for logistics. Yes, the margin of our manufacturers when selling one live bull to China is almost $ 600. While Australian farmers are content with only $ 100 margin from one head. Thus, we can safely move at a price. It is assumed that we can reduce the price further, narrowing a sufficiently large margin and thereby pushing the Australians in the Chinese market. But after all, Australian exporters have volumes, constant flow, diversification of supplies around the world and well-established transport logistics by sea. They have enough $ 100 margin, and possibly less. Moreover, the whole world, including meticulous Chinese, is ready to pay, and perhaps even overpay for the stability and timeliness of supplies, for branded goods, and finally, what is the meat of Australian producers.

Therefore, we are only at the beginning of the way to form our own brand, as well as to establish our transport and logistics network. We can not carry ships by ships, only by wagons. Hence, there should be enough wagons in the country, which should be used for the transportation of livestock. But with the cars, we have a problem. No wonder last year there was a mini-scandal, when one department suggested urgently to send money to the EPPF for the production and purchase of an elementary technical equipment - wagons for the transportation of goods and consignments for export.

Today, railways and the availability of a fleet of necessary rolling stock are the Achilles' heel of all our exports. It does not matter whether it concerns transportation of coal, chemicals, grain, livestock or commodity consignments of meat. So, synchronously not adjusting all processes, especially with rail transportation, we are unlikely to be able to compete with major players from Australia and New Zealand.

The Russian market: the lost opportunities

If China annually needs 7 million 900 thousand tons of beef, 30% of which is definitely imported, then nearby Russia annually consumes 2 million tons of beef, of which imports are no less. We are entering the united Customs and Eurasian economic unions with the Russian Federation, but, rightly, it's amazing how we are still not able to turn these realities to our advantage.

Little Belarus is closing 99% of Russia's total imports of chilled beef. And here it does not matter, the Belarusian partners in the EAEC managed to increase the number of cattle themselves, or somewhere in these figures there is re-export from other countries. At the same time, Belarusians do not have to doubt, because even Ukrainians, being in a difficult economic situation, managed to create a small miracle: today 30% of imported chilled beef imported to distant Egypt falls precisely on Ukraine.

It's also insulting that imports of poor-quality frozen beef to Russia go mainly from Brazil (47%) and Paraguay (27%), while we are avoiding this "recycling holiday". We are not what we can, but should drive Brazilian and Paraguayan suppliers of frozen meat to the Russian market. But while Kazakhstan is only at the "foot" of this big competitive path: for example, Russia is happy to import livestock to improve its genetics from Germany, the Netherlands (milk and dairy cattle) and Australia (beef cattle), and we in our the queue is aimed at importing the cattle stock from the border regions of the Russian Federation.

SOURCE: korovainfo.ru