Kazakhstan aims to create agromarketplace to control prices for socially significant food products

ASTANA. Aug 5 (Interfax) - Kazakhstan plans to create an agromarketplace that will help authorities regulate pricing for socially significant food products (SSFPs).

"The goal [of the agromarketplace project] is to transparently provide the population with SSFPs at reasonable prices by digitalizing price stabilization and monitoring mechanisms. The project allows for the consolidation of real-time information on agricultural producers' inventories and product volumes based on supply chain invoices on a single platform," Trade and Integration Minister Arman Shakkaliyev said during a government meeting on Tuesday.

The agromarketplace, or the Goods Traceability Information System (GTIS), will ensure a direct digital connection between producers, retail chains and government agencies, eliminating intermediary chains and non-transparent sales schemes, Shakkaliyev said.

The GTIS includes 364 contracts worth 99.72 billion tenge, with 1,436 thousand legal entities registered (excluding 20 social and entrepreneurial corporations and the Food Corporation).

A pilot project for implementing the GTIS is being carried out in collaboration with JSC Kazakhtelecom.

The official exchange rate on August 5 is 541.82 tenge/$1.