Nurzhan Agro-Industrial

Nurzhan Agro-Industrial (NAI; Iradi: Nurzhan agro-önör jay kombinaty) is an agribusiness company in Nurzhan that specializes in grain storage and trading, animal-feed milling, silage distribution and seed supply in the Irad Special Economic Zone (ISEZ). It was formed in 2008–2009 from privatized state grain and feed enterprises of the lower Chu River Basin, and it supplies most of the compound feed used by the commercial feedlots of the ISEZ. Since 2009 it has been headed by Bekzat Toktarov, the fifth son of Governor Erlan Toktarov, and it is one of the family businesses that critics cite as evidence of the concentration of economic power in the ISEZ.^[1]^[2]

History

In the Soviet period, grain from the Chu valley collective farms was delivered to a state procurement system that ran elevators and feed mills in Kobozev. These passed to territorial state enterprises after 1992 and were run down during the 1990s. Investment in the beef industry after the North American Free Trade Agreement came into force in 1994, notably by Sukarne and Conagra near Talas, increased demand for feed. Most of it was met by imports and by the feedlots' own mills.^[2]

In 2008 the ISEZ administration auctioned the state grain elevators and feed mills of the Chu District, and they were combined under NAI. Bekzat Toktarov, who had studied agricultural economics at the Tashkent Agrarian Institute, returned to Irad in 2009 to take charge of the company.^[1] Opposition deputies and the newspaper Irad Times criticized the auction, saying that other bidders had been excluded. The ISEZ administration said the sale followed the privatization law.^[3] In 2011 NAI opened a new compound-feed mill with Swiss-built equipment.

Facilities

NAI's main facilities are in the eastern industrial zone of Nurzhan, beside the railway to Kazakhstan:

the Nurzhan Central Grain Terminal, a Soviet-era concrete elevator of about 120,000 metric tons capacity, modernized with temperature monitoring and new rail-loading equipment;
the compound-feed mill, which produces pelleted feed for cattle and sheep and mineral supplements, with a reported capacity of about 240,000 metric tons a year;
a seed plant that cleans and treats seed of winter wheat, barley and alfalfa for sale to farmers;
smaller receiving stations along the canals of the Chu Irrigation Canal System.^[1]

Business

NAI buys wheat, barley and feed corn from farms in the Chu and Talas valleys, many of them irrigated by the Chu Valley Irrigation Inspectorate. It imports grain from Kazakhstan by rail when the local harvest falls short. According to the company, it supplies about 70% of the commercial compound feed sold in the ISEZ, including feed for the feedlots that supply the Sukarne Irad Complex.^[1] It also holds import distribution rights for hybrid seed, fertilizer from Kazakhstan and veterinary medicines.

NAI is one of the few ISEZ companies with regular trade across the Qara-Chik Demarcation Line. It buys barley and alfalfa from the tribal regions, and under a long-standing arrangement it supplies winter feed pellets to the Aksay Plateau Pastoral Cooperative in part exchange for wool and hides.^[2] The company is financed through working-capital loans from Talasbank, and its grain is moved by rail and by the trucks of Trans-Chuy Freight & Logistics.

Criticism

Farmers' groups have complained that NAI's dominance of grain storage allows it to set purchase prices, and economists have pointed to its share of the feed market as an example of family monopolies in the ISEZ. Leaked US intelligence reports cited the family's businesses as evidence of a neopatrimonial system (see Political status of Irad).^[2]^[3] The company says that it pays market prices and that its investments have reduced Irad's dependence on imported feed.

References

^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Agribusiness and Food Processing Directory. Talas.
^ Central Asian Geopolitical Review (2024). 'Oligarchic Dynasties of the Talas Basin.' Vol. 30, pp. 134–150.
^ Irad Times (2009). 'Grain Auction Leaves Rivals Outside the Gate.' Talas.