ASTANA (TCA) — During the next 3-5 years China intends to invest around $200 million in Kazakhstan’s meat industry, said the Chairman of China’s Rifa Holding Group Wu Jie, the official website of the Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.
“We are interested in beef and all meat from Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan is a place for meat production. China is the world’s largest meat importer,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the 1st International Forum of Kazakhstan’s Meat and Meat-processing Industry “KazMeat Astana 2016” on March 16.
He emphasized that the company will not buy meat but will invest in its production in Kazakhstan for further import to China.
It was earlier reported that Rifa Holding Group will invest in construction of a meat-processing plant in the East Kazakhstan province, with annual capacity of 17 thousand tons of lamb and beef. Some 80 percent of products will be exported to China. Rifa Holding will have a 49-percent share in the project.
In January the Kazakh Ministry of Agriculture and major Chinese companies such as CITIC, COFCO, Rifa Holding Group, and AIJIU signed an action plan to implement a number of projects in the production and processing of agricultural products in Kazakhstan for their further export to China.
According to the ministry, Chinese companies are interested in setting up joint ventures to process agricultural products (meat, oil, grain, tomatoes) in Kazakhstan.
The ministry said that a leading Chinese investment corporation, CITIC, intends to invest in construction of cattle feedlots and poultry farms in Kazakhstan.
