Restoration was successful: the Enterprise in Kostanay region, which had been idle for eight years, started exporting its product
The famous Komsomolskaya poultry farm in the Kostanay region, which had been idle for eight years, has been supplying the markets of Kazakhstan and Russia with broiler meat for the second year. Today, the enterprise is operating at full capacity, it is called the “Poultry-Agro” LLP, it is gradually reaching its design capacity, it has already started exporting its product, and, most importantly, provides the residents of the region with stable work.
In the Guryanovskoye village, Kostanay region, hundreds of people were left unemployed after the Komsomolskaya poultry farm was declared bankrupt, one of the largest agricultural enterprises in the region and the Karabalyk district, with population of about 30,000 people. In Soviet times, the Komsomolskaya poultry farm was famous throughout the Soviet Union for the high standard reputation. The factory fed not only the region, but almost all the Union Republics. After almost 50 years of operation, in the 2000-s, the Enterprise began to experience financial difficulties, and later in 2012 the Enterprise, unexpectedly for the villagers, ceased existence.
According to Mikhail Khilko, a resident of the village, for the first few years after the closure of the enterprise, most residents and workers of the poultry farm lived in anticipation that after a while once powerful Komsomolskaya Poultry Farm would resume its operation: “In many families, several generations worked at the poultry farm. I myself come from such a family. My grandfather used to work in a factory with my grandmother. I followed in their footsteps. There is no other job in the village, you can’t live on a small farm of your own. For some time, people were waiting for the factory to start working again, but it was necessary to feed their families, so they began to look for work in the city, leave for other villages or to relatives in other countries. The village became almost deserted."
In order to resume operation of the Poultry Farm, a new Enterprise called “Poultry-Agro” LLP was created in 2019. The Company was headed by Kairat Maishev, an experienced businessman in the poultry industry, the owner of the egg farm "Zhas-Kanat 2006" LLP, built by him "from scratch" near Rudniy city, in which success nobody believed either.
The project to revive the Komsomolskaya factory has become strategically important not only for the Kostanay region, but for the whole country. At the government level, the Poultry Farm is included in the TOP-8 projects, objective of which is to provide the Kazakh market with domestic poultry meat within two years.
According to K. Maishev, the Company can diversify its production. The “Poultry-Agro” LLP has its own land available - this is a big plus and a reserve for the development of not only the poultry industry, but also crop production. So, in order to give the factory a good breakthrough and make it a flagship again, the Enterprise was assigned several strategic tasks - technological modernization of production, creation of jobs, ensuring the food security of the region, import substitution and development of export markets.
Several financial institutions joined the investment project immediately: the KazakhExport Export Insurance Company, the Halyk Bank of Kazakhstan, the “Damu” Entrepreneurship Development Fund, the KazAgroFinance JSC and “SEC “Tobol” JSC and local executive bodies: local administrations of Kostanay region and Karabalyk District.
Large-scale restoration work began in 2020: connecting the central water supply, building backup wells, repairing buildings and roofing of poultry houses, reconstructing the gas pipeline, installing an automated control system. The technical launch was conducted by the end of 2020. Since January 2021, the Enterprise has gradually begun to recruit workers and specialists of middle and senior levels.
Alexander Korostylev, Development Director of the Poultry Agro: “The Enterprise was in a depressed condition. Its mortgage value was very low. We didn't have enough collateral to get us a loan. But the KazakhExport vouched for us, through their insurance we received a credit line for development and were able to raise the enterprise from its knees. Following the launch, we also applied for insurance support in order to arrange the export of our products abroad. Our company is about 50 km from the border with Russia, about 130 km from Kostanay. Therefore, a logical decision was made to enter the Russian market. Now we have several large and permanent contracts, including for the supply of products to Moscow.”
The project has already proved its viability, investment attractiveness and export potential. Demand for the Kazakh products is already showing steady growth. Importing countries are attracted to natural, clean bird feed and high quality standards. Today, the Factory employs a total of 332 people.
Nowadays, the production capacity of the Enterprise is about 6 thousand tons of poultry meat per year at the first stage. In the near future, the Poultry Farm will begin the second stage, which will create about 150 new jobs and reach full production capacity - 12.5 thousand tons of meat per year.
