Sugar factory worth $113 million planned for construction in Kazakhstan

ALMATY. Feb 7 (Interfax) - The Goldbridge International Company intends to build a sugar factory in the Atyrau region in western Kazakhstan with an annual production capacity of 144,000 tonnes.

Investment is estimated at 58 billion tenge or $112.6 million at the current exchange rate. A Chinese investor is ready to invest 80% of this figure, the Kazakh Agriculture Ministry said.

The project aims to meet domestic demand for sugar, the ministry said. Around 900,000 tonnes of beet will be needed annually to produce this amount of sugar. It will be grown in the Atyrau region, it said.

The project aims to meet demand for sugar not only in the region but also in the country as a whole, company head Lina Taiken was quoted as saying by the Atyrau regional administration.

"We exchanged experience with a leading Chinese company that produces yeast from beets and thoroughly studied their technology. They supported our project and are ready to invest 80% of the funds," Taiken said during talks with the head of the Atyrau regional administration Serik Shapkenov.

It is planned that the factory will be commissioned in the summer of 2026, provided that all documents are ready on time and the region provides the land for the enterprise's construction.

The land in the region is suitable for beet cultivation, and the administration is ready to assist the project with the needed infrastructure, Shapkenov said.

There are currently four sugar factories operating in Kazakhstan in the towns of Taraz, Merke, Aksu and Koksu, with a total daily capacity (based on raw materials) of 8,700 tonnes of sugar beet and 2,400 tonnes of raw cane. There are plans to build a new sugar factory in the south of the country which will be able to process 1 million tonnes of sugar beet per year.

It was previously reported that the beet harvest in Kazakhstan stood at around 1.3 million tonnes in 2024, with an average yield of 535.5 centners per hectare. This is two times greater than the result for 2023, when the gross sugar beet harvest in the country was 509,000 tonnes.

The official exchange rate on February 7 is 515.31 tenge/$1.