According to Yevniev, the roadmap was approved in October 2017 for two years.

“The basic activities and tasks of these two years have been implemented. These are Akmola region and four districts of Karaganda region. This concerned the construction of feedlots, dairy farms, slaughterhouses, loading capacity of processing enterprises. Basically, these indicators are met. As the year expires, it was decided to update the map and introduce the concept of the “Participant of the food belt of Astana”,” Yevniev said.

According to him, any commodity producer from any region of Kazakhstan can become a food belt participant.

“A special product will be developed. If he is the Participant, he will be considered on a priority basis for funding. This is a big advantage and a good opportunity not only to obtain financing, but also to have a guaranteed sales market. It is only necessary to fulfill our obligations,” said Yevniev.

Yevniev also stressed that one of the objectives of the roadmap is to implement additional measures to protect the market from non-conforming products.

According to him, the issue of protecting the market from poor-quality products is solved through partnership and interaction of a number of government agencies. This is aimed at protecting against counterfeit products that do not comply with the requirements of technical regulations, which is contrary to partnership agreements. It is also an explanation to the population of the norms and rules of healthy natural food.

“Our population should understand that natural milk, which can be stored for 5-7 days without serious processing that violates its natural and full food quality, is almost impossible to import from other countries. In this regard, those who want to get natural food, a quality product should focus more on the domestic food product. This concerns, first of all, milk and dairy food products, and likewise concerns vegetables and fruits,” said Yevniev.

In general, the first vice minister of agriculture noted an increase in production in all areas of food products in the current year.

“Today we see an increase in the production of fruits and vegetables and greenhouse products in the market. We have full confidence that we will be able to protect the population and deliver high-quality products,” Yevniev concluded.