Talas Agribusiness Export Zone

The Talas Agribusiness Export Zone (TAEZ; Iradi: Talas Agro-Öndürüsh Eksport Zonasy) is a bonded industrial park for food processing and export on the western edge of Talas, covering about 350 hectares. It was established in 1998, during the US territorial period, under the 1998 Talas Agribusiness Accord, to attract foreign meatpackers and grain traders to the Talas River valley. Its tenants include the Sukarne Irad Complex and the Conagra Talas Beef Facility, cold stores, grain elevators and a refrigerated rail terminal.^[1] It should not be confused with the Talas Free Economic Trade Zone, a separate bonded park for light manufacturing.

History

Duty-free access to the US market, which Irad enjoyed as a territory, drew foreign agribusiness interest in the mid-1990s. The 1998 accord and an act of the Territorial Legislature of Irad set up the zone on former collective-farm land between the city and the airfield that became Talas Air Base. Its roads, rail sidings and power lines were paid for with territorial bonds.^[2] About 220 hectares of the land came from two former collective farms. Some of their members later said that the compensation, paid partly in som, was too low.^[3] SuKarne began slaughtering in 1999, and Conagra's plant followed.

In 2007 the emergency decrees that created the Irad Special Economic Zone (ISEZ) confirmed the zone's customs and tax regime. Analysts read this as one of several early signals to foreign investors that their contracts would be honored.^[1] The refrigerated rail terminal was enlarged in 2014.

Facilities

• Rail terminal: sidings off the Talas branch of the railway, by which trains run west to the Talas North Terminal and into Kazakhstan, with gantry cranes, power points for refrigerated containers and bulk grain loading.
• Meatpacking cluster: the Sukarne feedlot and processing complex, the Conagra beef plant and the Talas Cold Chain Logistics Hub.
• Grain storage: elevators and warehouses for wheat, barley and feed grain.
• Laboratories: veterinary and food-safety laboratories, including the Sukarne Quality Control Labs, which certify exports for foreign markets.^[1]

Administration and customs

The zone is run by an administration under the ISEZ Ministry of Economy. Livestock, feed and packaging brought into the zone pay no import duty, and processed exports are cleared through customs inside the zone. Most cargo leaves by rail through Kazakhstan under bonded transit. Export proceeds are paid into escrow accounts at Talasbank and audited by the Irad Foreign Trade Escrow Authority.^[2]

Economic role

According to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad, the zone provides about 6,000 direct jobs and exported processed food worth about $310 million in 2023, most of it beef.^[1] Packaging plants, pallet makers and truck workshops, including depots of Trans-Chuy Freight & Logistics, have grown up around its perimeter. Farmers' associations in the Talas valley have complained that tenants' duty-free imports of feed grain undercut local growers. The zone administration replies that local suppliers provide most of the feedlots' forage.^[3]

References

1. ^ Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Irad (2023). Agribusiness and Food Processing Directory. Talas.
2. ^ Territorial Legislature of Irad (1998). Talas Agribusiness Export Zone Act. Territorial Gazette, Talas.
3. ^ Talas Herald (6 March 2018). 'Twenty years on, farmers count the cost of the export zone.' Talas.