ASTANA, Kazakhstan, October 20. Kazakhstan and Simatech Group will develop a new transport route for the supply of agricultural goods from the Kazakh port of Kuryk to the Persian Gulf countries through the ports of Amirabad and Bandar Abbas in Iran, Trend reports.
This measure was discussed by the Minister of Trade and Integration of Kazakhstan Arman Shakkaliyev and the management of the logistics company Simatech Shipping & Forwarding (part of DP World Group) during a meeting in Abu Dhabi.
"This route will allow Kazakh exporters to deliver their goods in three days through Iran, opening access to Iranian ports as well as UAE ports and onwards to all key ports in India, Pakistan, Asia-Pacific countries, and the east coast of Africa. It is important to note that the possibility of delivering goods to European countries will also be considered," Shakkaliyev said.
To achieve this goal, the creation of a joint venture between Kazakhstan and Abu Dhabi Ports was previously discussed.
Simatech Shipping & Forwarding has already acquired ships and plans to expand its fleet further. The key ports will be Kuryk in Kazakhstan and Jebel Ali in the UAE. This collaboration aims to facilitate rapid trade across Iran in 2–3 days.
The volume of gross agricultural output in Kazakhstan increased by 3.2 percent in the first half of 2023 and amounted to 2.1 trillion tenge (about $4.4 billion).
The growth was achieved mainly due to a 3.3 percent increase in livestock production volumes. Meat production increased by 4.5 percent (1 million tons in live weight) and milk production by 2.9 percent (3.2 million tons).
In 2022, the volume of gross agricultural production increased by 9.1 percent and amounted to 9.3 trillion tenge (about $19.5 billion). This happened due to an increase in crop production of 15 percent. Favorable weather conditions made it possible to carry out the harvesting campaign without downtime and harvest one of the best grain harvests in the last 10 years, which reached 22.8 million tons.