Reorientation to fish farming, improvement of legislation and measures of state support — how fish industry developed in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan is rich in fish resources. It is the fish industry that can play a special role in the economic development of the country. A lot of work has been done in this industry lately. And today, thanks to the initiatives taken by the Government, the fish industry is developing quite successfully. In August 2020, the Head of State pointed out the need to develop the existing capabilities and instructed to improve and approve regional programs for the development of fisheries by November 2020. Read about the current state and prospects for the development of the fishing industry, as well as the implementation of the president's instructions in the review material.
Kazakhstan, due to its rich and unique nature, has a rather powerful fishery fund. There is a high export potential in this direction.
The main activities of the fishing industry are fishing, fish farming and fish processing.
The total volume of the fish and fish products market in the country in 2019 amounted to about 66 thousand tons. Of these, fishing accounts for 45 thousand tons, fish farming — 7.4 thousand tons, imports — 43.5 thousand tons, exports — 30 thousand tons.
Kazakhstan imports ocean fish and seafood. These are herring, mackerel, shrimp, mussels and so on. Imports are from Norway, Russia, Iceland, China and the Baltic countries.
In turn, Kazakhstan annually exports 30 thousand tons of fish products worth about $60 million to 36 countries of the near and far abroad.
Mainly exported items include fish fillets, dried-smoked products and frozen fish carcasses. For example, pike perch fillet is a Kazakh brand in the countries of the European Union (Germany, the Netherlands), dried-smoked products are exported to Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, China and other countries. At the same time, there are large potential export markets next to us.
Kazakhstan is characterized by low per capita fish consumption. So, if the WHO recommends to consume at least 16 kg of fish products per year per person, then in Kazakhstan this figure is less than 4 kg. In turn, in neighboring Russia and China, 20-40 kg are consumed per person, respectively. Thus, taking into account the border areas, the potential niche for the export of fish products could be more than 3 million tons.
Today in Kazakhstan there are more than 1,000 fisheries entities, which are assigned 1,646 fishery reservoirs and their sections.
The industry employs over 11 thousand people. In 2019, 45 thousand tons of fish were caught. The main fishery centers are in the Atyrau, Almaty, East Kazakhstan and Kyzylorda regions. Aquaculture — modern driver for development of fishing industry all over the world Everyone knows that the exploitation of fish stocks in natural reservoirs has its limits, while in many reservoirs there is a decrease in fish resources. The Chair of the board of the Research and Production Center of Fisheries LLP K. Isbekov believes that the only alternative to increasing fish production is the development of aquaculture.
“Theoretically, the potential of the fishery can reach 600 thousand tons, while the main share — more than 80% — falls on the water area of the middle Caspian Sea of the Mangystau region, where the Caspian salmon and sturgeon species can be grown using cage culture technology, thereby we would not only raise export potential, but would also carry out import substitution (Atlantic salmon-Norwegian salmon),” Isbekov said.
