During the working trip, the minister met with major wholesale suppliers, entrepreneurs, and market administrations. Participants discussed issues of trade infrastructure development, customs procedures, phytosanitary control, and ensuring uninterrupted supply of food products. The main topic of the meeting was the implementation of the Prime Minister's instructions to bring order to the trade sector and reduce unproductive intermediaries.
The Government is currently carrying out systematic work to increase the transparency of supply chains and eliminate intermediary schemes that do not create added value. For this work, 63 of the country's largest markets, which have a significant impact on price formation in the regions, have been identified.
"Every tenge of an unjustified markup directly affects citizens' family budgets. Therefore, bringing order to supply chains is not only an economic but also a social task. Markets remain a crucial element of the country's food security, as it is here that a significant part of consumer demand and price benchmarks are formed," noted Arman Shakkaliyev.According to the minister, the price situation in the capital currently remains stable. At the same time, during the summer period, the ministry will continue its work to ensure further reduction of inflationary pressure and prevent unjustified price increases for socially significant food products.
"We intend to open several fairgrounds in the city center, where products from our warehouses will be sold directly to the population. This will shorten the path of goods from the wholesaler to the consumer and minimize intermediary markups. Currently, together with the city administration, we are working on locations for placing such trading points," said the director of the "Alash" wholesale market, Nurland Zhumekov.
Special attention is paid to compliance with legal requirements regarding trade markups on socially significant food products. Since the beginning of the year, as a result of control measures, 2,463 administrative rulings have been issued, totaling 76.8 million tenge. Of these, 1,628 rulings are related to exceeding the maximum permissible trade markup. The amount of fines for these violations exceeded 52 million tenge.The minister emphasized that the state is interested in developing fair competition and creating equal conditions for all market participants.
"Our task is not to create additional barriers for business or to increase administrative pressure. The state supports honest entrepreneurs and is interested in forming transparent rules of the game. However, such support is only possible under the condition of compliance with the law. If individual market administrations or trade entities continue to use non-transparent schemes, hide real supply chains, allow unjustified trade markups, or ignore legal requirements, the state will consistently apply the full range of response measures provided for by law," stated the minister.Arman Shakkaliyev also reminded that the principle of "Law and Order," outlined by the Head of State, must be strictly observed in all spheres of the economy, including trade. Uniform rules and equal responsibility for all market participants are a necessary condition for forming a fair competitive environment and ensuring food affordability for the population.
