Thousands of tons of potatoes from Kazakhstan have rotted at the border.
In mid-January, Kazakh entrepreneurs sold a large shipment of potatoes to Uzbekistan; however, the cargo was held up at the border for ten days, according to Orda.kz, citing KTK.
https://orda.kz/tysjachi-tonn-kazahstanskoj-kartoshki-sgnili-na-granice-397495/2025-01-30 07:30:49
The cargo was halted for a phytosanitary inspection. While it was ongoing, the potatoes froze, then thawed, and ultimately rotted. According to the entrepreneurs, it is now unfit for animal feed and certainly can't be sent to buyers in Uzbekistan.
“The akimat asked us to sell this potatoes for 100–150 tenge. Although it is currently priced at over 300 tenge per kilo. I don’t know what to do next. All the losses are now on my shoulders. I lost 60 million tenge from three wagons,” one of the entrepreneurs laments.
Vice Minister of Agriculture Yerbol Taszhurekov stated that the cargo underwent standard inspection procedures. He mentioned that currently, no one is holding the goods, and the potatoes (including the rotten ones) can be delivered to the recipient.
To find out what happened to Kazakhstani potatoes, why their prices have surged, and whether there is a limit to this increase—read this article.