Kazakhstan Life & Culture - The Times Of Central Asia

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Zollmann Stutenmilch GmbH

German Company to Make Cosmetics From Kazakh Mare’s Milk

The German skincare company Zollmann Stutenmilch GmbH is looking to expand its range of products -- including some containing horse's milk from Kazakhstan's S-Agro-Borovskoe. In September 2023 the Kazakhs opened a farm for producing powdered mare's milk under the 'Local Food' brand in the Kostanay region, employing 150 people. "The German company has been breeding horses since the 1970s, and in 1990 started producing freeze-dried mare's milk. Its farm in the town of Mühlben is the largest and oldest enterprise in Germany specializing in the production of kymyz [mare's milk]. We signed an agreement for further cooperation in Germany," said the director of S-Agro-Borovskoe, Meiram Akhmetzhanov. Local Food's kymyz is produced on a farm equipped with an automated milking system that collects fresh milk in cooling tanks without contacting air, which prevents pathogenic bacteria from entering the product. The milk is then pasteurized, cooled and frozen in a freeze dryer to produce a 100% organic, dry product with a shelf life of up to two years -- a major improvement, considering that fresh mare's milk can only be stored for two hours. Hans Zollmann, founder of Zollmann Stutenmilch GmbH, emphasized that the Kazakh company has become an exclusive partner and explained that the new agreement will include the production of organic cosmetics based on mare's milk. "The signed agreement is a new stage of our cooperation with Kazakhstan, especially with Kostanay. We plan to produce [all the same products that] we produce in Germany here in Kazakhstan. I have devoted my whole life to the production of mare's milk and I believe that Kazakhstan has great opportunities in this area, as this drink is their national treasure," Zollmann added. The launch of Local Food cosmetics is scheduled for the third quarter of 2024, and will create an additional 30 jobs. In the future, S-Agro-Borovskoe is also considering the production of sports nutrition products, baby food and pharmaceutical supplements.

Space

Baikonur Launch to ISS Scheduled for Saturday 23rd March

ALMATY, Kazakhstan - A spacecraft carrying three crewmembers from Russia, Belarus and the United States is scheduled to launch Saturday to the International Space Station. The mission was aborted Thursday with seconds to lift-off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The scrapped launch was caused by a “voltage drop in the chemical current source," said Yuri Borisov, head of Roscosmos, the Russian space agency. Tass, the Russian state news agency, quoted Borisov as saying the crew is safe and well. The Soyuz spacecraft was expected to take about three hours after a launch on Thursday to reach the station, where seven people already aboard are awaiting the new arrivals. If a Saturday afternoon launch goes ahead, the travel time will be longer and docking is expected to occur on Monday. Those heading to the space station are mission commander Oleg Novitsky of Roscosmos (his fourth trip to space), Belarusian Marina Vasilevskaya (her first trip) and NASA’s Tracy Caldwell Dyson (her third). Novitsky, a lieutenant colonel in the Russian Air Force, and Vasilevskaya, a former flight attendant, will return to Earth after 12 days on the station, accompanied by NASA’s Loral O’Hara, who has spent six months in space. Dyson, a chemist with experience as an electrician and private pilot, is scheduled to return to Earth in September. Coordination between the U.S. and Russian space agencies has continued despite international tension over the war in Ukraine. “Russia and the United States are still cooperating in space. At least for now,” tweeted Eric Berger, senior space editor at Ars Technica, a technology publication. Russia operates the Baikonur Cosmodrome in southern Kazakhstan. The Soviet Union opened the facility in the 1950s.

Drug Dealing in Kazakhstan Continues to Gain Momentum

Over the past six years the volume of seized synthetic drugs in Kazakhstan has almost doubled, Finprom.kz reports. In 2023 law enforcement agencies in Kazakhstan interdicted and confiscated 41.1 tons of illicit substances, up from 20.3 tons in 2018. In 2023 the number of drug laboratories destroyed increased to 75 from 68, and Kazakhstani officials called the increase in the distribution of banned substances an outbreak of drug trafficking. Because of the increase in drug usage, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has said that new types of synthetics will be included in the national list of narcotic drugs before they are brought into Kazakhstan. As soon as the drugs are on the national list, they'll immediately be registered on Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and UN International Committee lists. Until 2019 in Kazakhstan, the procedure for inclusion of new drugs in the national list took about a year -- now it takes no more than a month. Over the past few years in Kazakhstan, the volume of seizures of all sorts of so-called "salts," "ecstasy" and various synthetic cannabinoids has increased 143.4 times -- rising to 1.1 tons from 7.7 kilograms. At the same time, the share of synthetics out of the total number of confiscated drugs in 2023 was insignificant, at 2.7 percent. It's difficult to obtain accurate data on the market volume of modern illicit substances -- often because new types of drugs are distributed mainly among young people through messenger apps and crypto-wallets, with the use of bots for publishing advertisements. According to the Interior Ministry, more than 3,000 different drug-dealing sites and 1,300 online stores on encrypted messaging app Telegram were blocked by Kazakhstan last year. Finprom.kz analysts report that they themselves managed to independently find several such channels operating in the country. At the end of 2023, Kazakhstani Interior Minister Yerzhan Sadenov named some of the main barriers in the fight against the spread of synthetic drugs. He said the issue is complicated by the fact that the drugs are made in clandestine labs in the country from substances that are not considered illegal in Kazakhstan -- and can only legally be brought to the attention of police after they are used to make a drug. Last year the Ministry of Internal Affairs seized more than 100 tons of these ingredients -- which could have turned into eight tons of finished drugs. Therefore, the Ministry of Internal Affairs proposes increasing criminal liability for trafficking in precursor chemicals. Today the country punishes only the smuggling of these substances. According to the Prosecutor General's Office of Kazakhstan, last year drug crime in the country increased by 9%. In 2023, 7,500 drug crimes and criminal offenses were recorded. The police detained about 4,500 people, including minors, on suspicion of distribution, manufacture or sale of illegal substances.

Scandal on Khabar TV Raises Discussions About Domestic Violence in Kazakhstan

A scandal which erupted on Kazakhstan's state television channel, Khabar, has caused huge public outrage. At the center of events was a woman named Gulmira, who had suffered years of abuse at the hands of her husband. Her story became the subject of discussion on the talk show, Birak, which is dedicated to family relations. On Khabar, Gulmira spoke about the eighteen years of beatings and violence she had suffered in her marriage. She ran away from her hard drinking husband with her six children, but he found her in Astana, and arranged another humiliation, with the talk show hosts secretly and without any warning bringing her husband to the studio, which caused Gulmira to break down live on air. The shows hosts even tried to reconcile the spouses, which only served to aggravate the already extremely strained situation. On social networks, the public actively discussed the abhorrent behavior of the presenters and espoused their support for Gulmira. Videos were created which commented on the show, and many media outlets spoke out in defense of the woman, emphasizing the fact that such things should not be staged on national television. As a result of the wave of indignation, the state television channel Khabar decided to stop airing the talk show Birak. The Minister of Culture and Information of Kazakhstan, Aida Balayeva, promised to shut down the talk show, stating that the problem of family violence requires serious attention. This event took place against the background of huge public attention on the trial of former Minister of the National Economy, Kuandyk Bishembayev, who is accused of murdering his wife. In such an environment, any justification for the actions of an aggressor on state TV was deemed hugely inappropriate and only served to highlight the issue of domestic violence.

Economic Integration

Optimism Meets Reality at the B5+1 Forum in Almaty

The inaugural B5+1 Forum, a conference dedicated to strengthening business between the five Central Asian republics and the United States, came to a close today in Almaty after a second well received day of panel discussions. The B5+1 Forum was created by the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), which aims to use public-private partnerships to create a better environment for business and trade. The B5+1 platform brings international and local companies together with high-ranking government officials from all six countries, to learn about the difficulties that each side faces, and suggest new ways to attract partners and investment. Following an opening day focused on “Looking within Central Asia”, today’s speakers brought attention to “Central Asia’s place in the world economy”. The morning began with a keynote speech by Eurasian affairs expert S. Frederick Starr, who argued that because the five countries are now members of different trade blocs, the revival of the Central Asian Economic Union could break down their existing barriers to business and trade with the United States. During a morning session on international partnerships, foreign experts brainstormed ways to speed up the Central Asia region’s economic integration with the rest of the world. To an audience of business leaders whose overall mood was optimistic, the EU’s ambassador to Kazakhstan Kestutis Jankauskas and World Bank economist David Knight brought a dose of realism, by explaining that business in Central Asia is not performing as well as in other emerging regions. This, they both said, is because the governments – and business owners – have mostly still not let go of self-defeating ways of approaching markets and investment. The middle session went into more detail about the investment landscape, particularly in terms of IT and fintech. Jennifer Miel, executive director for Kazakhstan for the US Chamber of Commerce, mentioned that all five Central Asian countries have seen healthy increases in foreign direct investment since 2021. This was soon tempered by Anatoly Motkin of the agency StrategEast, who said that to achieve further sustainable growth, the region must unify its legislation and best practices, so that foreign investors can treat it as a single market as much as possible. The Forum’s closing session explored the role of business associations in public-private dialogue. The panel was moderated by Eric Hontz, CIPE’s director for accountable investments, and featured the executive directors of the US Chambers of Commerce in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan – Aisuluu Sydygalieva, Nilufar Bulbulshoeva and Tatyana Bystrushkina. Discussion centered on best practices and solutions for effective member representation. The B5+1 Forum forms part of CIPE’s program called “Improving the Business Environment in Central Asia” (IBECA). CIPE themselves are affiliated to the US Chamber of Commerce – the catalyst behind the B7 and B20 platforms – and receive funding from the US Department of State. Early indications are that the B5+1 Forum in 2025 will be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.

Movie Streaming Grows as Kazakhstan’s Film and Media Prices Rise

According to a report by Finprom.kz, subscriptions to streamed movie and television platforms in Kazakhstan are far more expensive than in Turkey and Egypt but two times cheaper than in Switzerland. Over the past year, costs have increased by 12% whilst the combined worth of the television, radio, film, music recording and publishing sector has risen by a third. In 2023, the production of programs for television and radio was valued at $259.1 million, while that of cinema and video, sound recording and publication of musical products, was calculated at $202.8 million. Kazakhstan's expenditure of $244 million on the creation and broadcast of TV programmes represented an increase of 34.1% compared to 2022, and that of $15.1 million on radio programmes, showed a rise of 25.1%. Cinema production was valued $81.2 million in 2023 and the cost of screening amounted to $76.3 million. The sector's most significant growth however, lay in distribution which doubled to $37.8 million. The production value of sound recording and publication of musical works showed the greatest increase of all, rising to $4.8 million from $397,000. Against this backdrop, the price of cinema tickets tickets soared by 11.6%. As reported by VisualCapitalist, online streaming media services have been gaining popularity year-on-year. The cost in Kazakhstan of a standard subscription to Netflix, recently increased to $10.76 per month, is on par with rates charged in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and Central Asia, apart from Tajikistan where subscribers pay $12.70 per month.