Kazbek Beysebayev: “It is impossible to lose own national identity!”

In Kazakhstan many people are anxious today with that fact that the future entry of the country into the WTO can lead to serious crisis in domestic cattle breeding. Moreover, it can affect the national consciousness … The hot topic for our portal was commented by Kazbek Beysebayev, one of the most authoritative bloggers of Kazakhstan:

Kazakhstan started to import the meat more. And this is with the fact that we didn’t join the WTO yet. The WTO is, simply, a big world market with the uniform rules and with the «bazarkom». Receiving a place there, you allow all to another to trade on own market. As a result it turns out that local «bazarkom is not independent and has to submit to requirements of the main world «bazarkom». It is quite natural that buyers on a local market will buy those goods which are more qualitative and cheaper. And this year we will join WTO — it means, it is necessary to expect flow of frozen mutton which will be even cheaper.

After all there is a globalization, the market opens. As a result we have a lot of frozen mutton. In Kazakhstan last year the agricultural products were bought on 4 billion! Now sharply meat import grows. The reason is obvious — import meat costs cheaper. We are, naturally, interests the mutton, than pork much more.

Meat is delivered from everywhere to us. According to experts, most of all from Russia — 90%, then follow Belarus, China, Argentina Brazil. On counters already there was also a frozen mutton from Australia. The share of import meat in domestic market on beef makes 7%, poultry — 60%.

Certainly domestic meat is better for us according to taste. But here the price is a question. Even, despite transportation costs, import meat from far Argentina and Australia is cheaper because of one simple reason: the cattle is grazed all the year round, the hay shouldn’t be prepared, and there is no need for special winter rooms.

If the tendency of growth of meat import proceeds, it will be unprofitable to the Kazakhstan agricultural producer to be engaged in cattle cultivation. We have no such large-scale enterprises that were in Soviet period. Now the private farms are present, generally. And if there is a big inflow of frozen mutton, it will be simply unprofitable to go in for animal husbandry. After all it is very big work: both to prepare the hay and to provide wintering, and so on according to the list … Very expensive business turns out for a private trader.

Should the state to help? It is a question, of course! All state farms sank into reorganization — unlike the same Belarus where the large agricultural producers are kept. Here also it turns out that the private trader will hold herd not for commodity production, but for satisfaction of own needs.

For example, in the Grodno region of Belarus the agro-industrial complex includes 117 agricultural cooperatives, 9 joint-stock companies, 38 agricultural unitary enterprises, 13 agricultural branches of the industrial enterprises. After final formation of the Eurasian union, it isn’t difficult to guess who will have advantage in a common economic space …

Of course, the people see how the events develop, understand to what negative consequences it can lead. Kazakhs historically always were the nomadic people; the cattle breeding always played an important role in their life. Not for nothing always at first were interested in a condition of cattle.

For Kazakhs the animal husbandry, besides an economic component, always was something sacral. The animal husbandry for us is comparable with national identity. We will lose the first — there is a risk to lose the second … It is impossible to lose traditions, to lose the national identity. Can you imagine in Kazakhstan where always the cattle breeding always played a special role, the meat import can get the crucial importance: it is the nonsense!

The authorities somehow especially don’t speak about all this. But after all it can be that we even won’t be able to make a national dish as it should be!