A thousand tons of potatoes rotted in freight cars in the Turkestan region.

The volume of spoiled potatoes amounted to about one thousand tons. The cargo was supposed to be sent from Pavlodar to Tashkent, but it was delayed at the border for inspection.

The train cars stood idle for more than 10 days awaiting phytosanitary checks, resulting in the potatoes going bad. Business owners estimate the damage to be in the tens of millions of tenge.

According to the sellers, this type of potato is not even suitable for animal feed. They do not understand why the cargo was held for so long. All documents were prepared in mid-January, even before the export ban was implemented. Therefore, business owners see no reason for the prolonged delay. They are also unable to send the goods to the buyer now, although the local akimat had previously offered to buy it at half the price.

The akimat asked us to sell this potato for 100-150 tenge. However, it is currently priced at 300 tenge per kilo. I don’t know what to do next. The entire loss is now on my shoulders. I lost 60 million tenge from three train cars,” complained entrepreneur Nursultan Ormanov.

The Ministry of Agriculture assures that the train cars with vegetable cargo underwent the necessary checks. They found no obstacles for their further movement.

“As of today, according to my information, the inspection work has been completed. The necessary information has been identified. Currently, there are no obstacles or barriers for the further movement of the train cars. Therefore, 43 export-oriented cars can cross the border,” explained the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yerbol Taszhurekov.

However, such a belated approval is of no use to the entrepreneurs. Representatives of five companies suffering losses have stated their intention to sue the officials.