A new recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) farm capable of producing 10,000 metric tons (MT) of Australian barramundi per year is currently under construction in Kapshagay, Kazakhstan.
Almaty-based Ospanova Development – owned by Kazakhstan business tycoon Alexander Belovich – is the primary investor in the new farm. The company plans to invest KZT 67 billion (USD 157.7 million, EUR 134.5 million) in the farm, which will be built in two stages. The first stage, which will have a capacity of producing 1,000 metric tons of barramundi annually, is slated for completion in 2022, and full capacity will be reached by 2024. When complete, the project will employ 300 workers.
The project is supported and coordinated by the Ministry of Ecology, Geology, and Natural Resources of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Ministry Head Magzum Mirzagaliyev, in a speech during the groundbreaking ceremony, referenced an order given by the Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev to the government in late 2020 to accelerate the development of the local seafood industry.
The Kazakhstani government's support of the new farm is designed to help it reach a goal of providing the nation’s 19 million inhabitants with more locally farmed fish and reduce dependence on seafood imports, Mirzagaliyev said. Kapshagay is located near the city of Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, with a population of two million inhabitants.
The proposed farm is in line with the country's Strategy of Fishery Development Industry, which has the goal of reducing Kazakhstan's dependence on seafood imports, Mirzagaliyev said. The program has the goal of achieving 270,000 MT of national fish production by 2030. In order to reach that total, the government has provided incentives and other measures to boost investment in the seafood sector, including subsidies for aquaculture.
Modern, efficient farms like Ospanova’s can help the country advance its seafood goals, Mirzagaliyev said. Similar farms can be established in any region of the country, as they use water-saving technologies, a characteristic especially important for water-deficient Kazakhstan.
Ospanova Development will use Australia-based Barrablue’s RAS to reduce water consumption and deliver high-quality fish, the company said. The farmed barramundi can be supplied both to the market of the Almaty region, and to the nearby markets of Russia and China. Located in the south of the country, Kapshagay is less than 300 kilometers from the border between Kazakhstan and China, less than 200 kilometers from Kyrgyzstan, and about 1,000 kilometers from Russia.
Kazakhstan has 20 major water bodies ideal for aquaculture, according to the government's aquaculture development plan. Those are divided into 371 plots, 255 of which are already leased to farmers. There are also 2,860 water bodies of less importance, 1,315 of which have been leased. By the end of 2021, nearly 600 aquaculture projects will have been launched in the country. The biggest of them will produce sturgeon and sturgeon roe and char, as well as aquafeed, Kazakhstan's Eldala news agency reported.
Photo courtesy of Karl Timmer/Shutterstock
