Batalov about sugar beet growing

The program of public-private partnership since the start of its implementation has become an effective tool in solving many issues related to key sectors of the economy. Almaty region in this regard takes the leading position in attracting investors, thus demonstrating a vivid example of how the state, together with business, solves national problems, reports BNews.kz.

Thus, according to the information of the regional akimat, 66 projects amounting to 56.6 billion tenge are planned to be implemented in the region as part of a public-private partnership. Today, many of them give concrete results of joint efforts. Evidence of this is the Aksu Sugar plant, which has passed the active stage of reconstruction and modernization thanks to the principle of PPP. The company, built in 1968, was once the flagship of the domestic production of white sugar.

However, for several reasons, the plant was idle for a long time. And only in 2017, it was possible to breathe new life into the old building, which was facilitated by the signing of an agreement between the regional akimat and a large investor - the ENERGOMOST consortium.

This was preceded by a lot - holding the necessary meetings and negotiations, investing funds, purchasing advanced equipment. But, according to Samat Nadirbayev, general director of Aksu kant LLP, it was worth it. By the way, the amount of investments only in the first stage of modernization, according to official data amounted to 11 billion tenge.

As it was explained in the press service of the regional akim, in the framework of the first stage of modernization at the Aksu sugar plant, equipment was replaced in the juice-extracting, juice-cleaning, grocery, pulp-press, lime-gas, as well as juice and syrups departments. The main feature - the entire production line is automated; management is carried out through the central hardware.

“For example, thanks to the new evaporator plant, energy costs have decreased by 30%. A unique chamber filter has been installed at the plant using new filtration technologies. The work in the packaging workshop has also been automated. In total, 119 units of Kazakhstani technological equipment have been purchased through SEC Zhetysu , Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, French, German production. The purchased equipment was transferred to Aksu Kant LLP under financial leasing, ”the head of the region’s press service noted.

The production capacity of the enterprise currently amounts to 2.5 - 3 thousand tons of sugar beet per day. This year the total supply will amount to 150-160 thousand tons of sweet root. Sugar yield - 11.5%.

"As for the social side, now the average salary of our employees is 75 thousand tenge, the plant employed more than 500 specialists," said the director of the company.

The next second stage of modernization is planned to be held in 2019, but already at the expense of the company's own funds. By the way, when reaching the design capacity, the plant will process up to 350 thousand tons of raw materials, produce over 40 thousand tons of sugar, which will be 28% of the total sugar processing in the country in 2020 (the Republican plan for 2020 is 140 thousand tons).

"Our main goal is the realization of the export potential and the saturation of the domestic market with domestic and high-quality products," S. Nadirbayev added.

The opening of the plant made it possible to solve the problem of selling and transporting the extracted raw materials for the beet growers of the nearby regions. And this, according to the agrarian Nikolay Shin, is a significant saving of funds, in particular for the rental of heavy vehicles.

"Now there are two large beet processing plants in the region - Koksu and Aksu. For us, the villagers, the most important thing is that beets should be collected and processed in a timely manner," the beet grower shared his opinion.

Additionally, there are more than enough raw materials in the region. After all, this year, individual farms managed to collect up to 500 centners of beets per hectare. In general, next year, according to akim of the region Amandyk Batalov, the area of sown sugar beet will be about 14 thousand hectares.

“The head of state set before us a specific task - to revive the glory of beet-growing. We, in turn, will make every effort to translate this commission into reality,”