Will 66.2 billion tenge save Kazakh veterinary medicine?

In addition to the construction of nearly 2400 facilities, parallel negotiations are underway to open six new export markets for Kazakh livestock farming at once.

The gist in brief

• The Ministry of Agriculture reported on the progress of implementing the Comprehensive Veterinary Development Plan for 2026–2030 — 66.2 billion tenge is allocated for strengthening the material and technical base of the sector in 2026–2027 for the construction and acquisition of 2,399 veterinary facilities.
• Kazakhstan is simultaneously working on access for livestock products to several new external markets at once: poultry — to China, meat products — to Turkey and Thailand, sport horses — to the UAE, live horses — to Japan, dairy products — to South Korea, pork — to Georgia; work continues on access for aquaculture and horse meat to the EU market.
• A draft law "On Veterinary Medicine" has been submitted to Parliament, and with the support of the World Bank, a traceability system for veterinary drugs is being developed — from prescription issuance to actual use.
• A separate area is personnel: the number of educational grants for master's degrees for veterinary specialists is planned to be increased to 200, social support measures, uniforms, and salary increases are envisaged.
• The real picture that is not included in the reports.

A five-year comprehensive plan

Financing of 66.2 billion tenge for 2026–2027 is part of a larger Comprehensive Veterinary Development Plan for 2026–2030, covering eight areas: from epizootic well-being and laboratory diagnostics to digitalization of the sector and veterinary pharmaceuticals. With this money, it is planned to build and acquire 2399 veterinary facilities. A separate deadline is set for animal burial sites — their inventory and bringing fences into proper condition must be completed by the end of October 2026. We have already written that the Ministry of Agriculture previously publicly criticized a number of regions for missing deadlines for the construction of such facilities — the current report shows that work continues on the same scale, and has not been curtailed after public criticism.

Why infrastructure is needed for export

The logic of investing in infrastructure is directly linked to the sector's foreign trade ambitions. Kazakhstan is simultaneously working on access for livestock products to several new external markets at once: poultry — to China, meat products — to Turkey and Thailand, sport horses — to the UAE, live horses — to Japan, dairy products — to South Korea, pork — to Georgia; work continues on access for aquaculture and horse meat to the EU market. Without infrastructure that meets international standards within the country, such negotiations remain a formality, regardless of the number of countries on the list of potential buyers.

The new law and traceability of drugs

In addition to infrastructure measures, the sector also awaits legislative renewal — a separate draft law "On Veterinary Medicine" has been submitted to Parliament, intended to strengthen state regulation and control in the field. In parallel, with the support of the World Bank, a system for recording veterinary drugs is being developed, which should ensure their traceability at all stages — from prescription issuance to actual use on a specific animal. Such a system is directly linked to international recognition of veterinary well-being: buyers such as the EU or Japan evaluate not only the final product, but also the entire path the animal has gone through and the drugs applied to it.

The personnel issue

A separate block of measures is dedicated to specialists on the ground — those who, in the end, must ensure that Kazakh livestock farming meets international requirements. The number of educational grants for master's degrees for veterinary specialists is planned to be increased to 200, social support measures, uniforms and special clothing, salary increases, and additional incentive mechanisms are envisaged. In parallel, the phased modernization of veterinary control posts at the state border continues — a bottleneck through which virtually all foreign trade turnover of livestock products passes.

The official picture and what is happening on the ground

For all the scale of the declared investments and positions, it is important to keep in sight and voice remarks regarding the situation. We have already written that in Kazakhstan, throughout 2026, cases of livestock death with an undetermined diagnosis were repeatedly recorded — from Atyrau to West Kazakhstan region — which on social media were ironically dubbed "Tashimov's disease" in honor of the accusation of that very committee of veterinary control, which is now being counted in successful areas. According to FBRK data, the head of the department of veterinary control at borders and transport, Yeris Nuraliyev, back in January 2026 headed the committee on official memos about the risks of economic movement and proposed temporary prevention measures — but, according to his own statement, the proposals remained unanswered, and after that his complaints to state bodies came under control. Kazakhstan received official status of change regarding foot-and-mouth disease from the World Organization for Animal Health in May 2026 — while cases of livestock death with an undetermined diagnosis continued to be recorded after that as well.

Just this week, another notable case occurred — this time with poultry. In the village of Shakhovskoye in northern Kazakhstan, over several weeks, more than 13,000 geese died for an unexplained reason, and some farms lost almost their entire livestock, purchased on credit in anticipation of an autumn sale. Local residents described specific losses — up to 1.7 million tenge per farm with the loss of about 10,000 head.

The head of the regional veterinary department, Zhanat Amerzhanov, acknowledged that there is no laboratory confirmation yet: preliminary avian influenza is being observed based on necropsy results, and the working group names pasteurellosis associated with the import of birds without accompanying documents. A detail from the same material is also telling: a year ago, a similar mass poultry die-off in the neighboring village of Bugrovoye was also explained by the government as pasteurellosis, but an independent examination that the villagers ordered in Almaty, claimed for avian influenza — official confirmation of that version was never received.

This does not mean that the figures on financing or the list of countries for export are themselves inaccurate — rather, it shows the gap between the level of planning and how the system works in specific regions and farms here and now. The comprehensive plan worth 66.2 billion tenge will hardly close infrastructure gaps on paper by 2027, but for the veterinary system on the part of both farmers and potential clients in new export markets, trust is built not only on reports of plan fulfillment, and in this case, when individual cases of livestock and poultry death arise, clear, convincing, confirmed conclusions are needed — not a working version that year after year is dispensed with separate questions.

Author's takeaway

66.2 billion tenge over two years is a noticeable sum even against the backdrop of other state support measures for the agro-industrial complex, and the parallel measurement with six variations at once shows that the sector expects real returns from investments, and is not simply spending the budget. But the declared plans and statuses exist in parallel with a less prosperous picture in the regions — unexplained cases of sheep death in West Kazakhstan region and poultry in Shakhovskoye, ignored submissions from natural specialists, and closed statistics that are difficult to reconcile with the optimistic reports of the collegium. The final result of this entire program will depend not on the volume of allocated money and not on the number of countries on the export list, but on whether it will actually be possible to close this gap between declared and actual veterinary safety, and not simply consistently publish optimistic reports about one thing and another.