UNDP supports farmers and processors in Kyrgyzstan

October 8, 2020

UNDP, as part of the regional project "Aid for Trade in Central Asia", funded by the Government of Finland, is launching the project: "Value chain strengthening of dried fruits, berries, dried vegetables and nuts". 

History of Timur Subankulov 

Timur Subankulov from the Aksyi district of the Jalal-Abad region began producing dried prunes using homemade equipment converted from an incubator for chickens. There is a lot of prunes in the area and the Timur enterprise has been increasing its capacity annually. Initially, buyers of dried prunes were traders from Tajikistan and local markets in Bishkek and Osh. But the purchase price was not stable and depended on the harvest. If the year was productive, the price dropped to 40-50 soms per kilogram. In bad harvest years, the price rose to 135 soms. 

Since 2017, the company has been working to improve product quality. In the next two years, with the assistance of UNDP. A new factory was built in order to meet HACCP requirements, new drying equipment with a capacity of 3 tonnes of fresh produce and a refrigeration chamber for storing the produced prunes.  

Back in 2017, more than 10 tonnes of plum were processed for drying. The 3 tonnes of dried plums received were sold to buyers from the city of Isfara (Republic of Tajikistan) price of 90 KGS per kilogram.

Then, since 2018, the company began to cooperate with the trading company "Sun Planet Organics", a major exporter of dried fruits. The requirement of Sun Planet Organics was to produce dried plums under the Organic standard.  And since this year, Subankulov has been producing organic prunes for this company.

But, as Timur Subankulov said, the purchase price of organic prunes is low, in the 2019 season it was 80 soms per kilo. As of today (end of August 2020), Sun Planet Organics has not yet determined either the order volume or the purchase price of prunes. This uncertainty prevents the company from drawing up production and financial plans for the season.

Photo: personal archive of Timur Subankulov

Today, the processor has decided that it already needs to enter export markets on its own. Develop its brand, packaging for products, and expand its range. For example, the drying of apples. For this purpose, at his home district in  Aksy he  has a large raw material base of apples, such as orchards and wild-growing apples. First of all, he needs to buy equipment to cut these fruits. 

That is why Timur Subankulov is interested in cooperation with the UNDP project "Strengthening Dry Fruits, Dried Vegetables, Herbs and Nuts CDC" and hopes to receive assistance in training company specialists and entering new export markets.  

About the project 

The money allocated by the Finnish Government will go to processors and farmers who grow and dry fruits, berries, dried vegetables and nuts. According to project expert Ainura Kumushbekova, (Erkin Consult) support will be provided to farmers and processors in the Issyk-Kul, Jalal-Abad and Osh regions.  

- The project aims to develop and strengthen the capacity of all actors in the value chain and bring farmers and processors to work together to achieve high margins and export products," explained Ainura Kumushbekova. 

The results that will be achieved by farmers, processors and other participants at the end of the project should be the creation of new jobs, increased sales and profits, export volumes, and the acquisition of new technological and agronomic knowledge and food safety systems.

Features 

As for the specifics of the project implementation, given the pandemic, part of the consulting assistance will be provided online in the form of remote training, video lessons, video instructions and so on. At the same time, as Director of Erkin Consult Aibek Marazhapov said, most of the work and consultations on business planning and financial planning will be carried out in person at face-to-face meetings with management and accountants of clients. Training materials, brochures and video clips will also be developed.

The topics of consultation are agronomy, production technology, marketing and sales, export skills, business planning, food safety systems and supply chain management. 

It should be noted that in terms of participation in the project, there are no restrictions on the form of ownership. In other words, both private and public farms can participate. For example, the same state forests that are fruit and berry forests. 

It is worth emphasising that the project involves a fairly large number of participants. At least 120 farmers and at least 10 processing companies. 

The selection of actors, however, will depend on the raw material base. In other words, in the area where the actor works (farmer, forest user, etc.) there must be enough raw materials (berries, vegetables, fruit) to be processed and further exported. 

The project implementer, Erkin Consult, has already held several meetings with representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Processing Industry, authorized government representatives in the Issyk-Kul, Osh and Jalal-Abad oblasts, heads of Aiyl okmotu, from where project approvals and some recommendations were received.

The project implementation period is 1.5 years. August 2020 - December 2021.