New tax laws could end Kyrgyzstan’s fish feed industry
Kyrgyzstan’s Department of Fisheries under the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation has initiated changes to the tax code in order to establish the zero rate of VAT for feed fish imports. Experts believe this move is the beinging of the end of the country’s fish feed industry.
The purpose of the move is to replenish stocks of commercially valuable fish species and creating conditions for effective development of the fisheries. At the moment the rate is 12%. Many experts predict that such a measure will lead to the disappearance of fish feed industry in the country.
In particular the largest plant-producer of fish feed, operating under the trademark “CombiFood”. Bakyt Degenbaev, CombiFood’s director general, said at a press conference on the 17th April, that they will probably be forced to close if such changes are brought in as they will not be able to compete with European manufacturers.
"Our plant produces high-energy pelleted feed for sturgeon, rainbow trout and carp species. The price for our feed is 85 soms (US$ 1.81) per kilogram, while the price of imported feed from Europe is 120-140 soms (US 2.56–2.98). If the parliament decides to remove the VAT, the price of foreign food will fall to 90 soms (US$ 1.92), placing us at a disadvantaged," he noted in the official report. CombiFood is now not only the supplier of feeds to the majority of fish farms in Kyrgyzstan, but also exports a significant portion of its products to neighboring Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, being the largest producers of fish feed on the territory of Central Asia.
CombiFood produces 100 tonnes of feed per year.
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