Contrepouss of the war in Ukraine, the departure in January of the American brand of Kazakhstan uncovers the difficulty of the Republic of Central Asia to emancipate from Russian power.
by Thomas Guichard
This sidewalk in Almaty, economic capital of Kazakhstan, would need a good shovel. In early January, thirty centimeters of snow block access to an old McDonald’s. Since the closure of the 24 restaurants of the chain in the country, on January 5, its lights have remained extinct. The giant brand on the roof was removed by workers the next day. It was a storm morning, the thermometer displayed – 10 ° C. Residents then saw the yellow “m” at the back of a van which painfully left the city center under the flakes.
This unexpected departure is one of the many consequences of the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions against Moscow. In response to this offensive, the multinational had broken all link with its Russian suppliers and closed its restaurants in Russia in May 2022. In Kazakhstan, only burgers’ breads were produced locally, all the other ingredients came from Russia. Bringing raw materials from Europe has been deemed too expensive by McDonald’s. And Kazakhstan, which dreams of freeing itself economically from Moscow, has not found other supply solutions.
important meat producer
maksut baktibayev remembers having jumped from his chair by learning the news. The president of the meat union in Kazakhstan regrets the departure of the channel, which employed 2,000 employees. “With six months of adaptation, our industry could have taken charge of supplying meat,” he deplores. President Kassym-Jomart Tokaïev, who came to power in 2019 and re-elected in 2022 without real opposition, said he wanted to make Kazakhstan a land of reception for companies forced to leave the Russian market with the war in Ukraine. It will not be for this time.
With 550,000 tonnes of beef out of his slaughterhouses in 2021, the former Soviet republic is however an important meat producer. But it lacks a processing factory in accordance with international standards, respecting for example the criteria in fat saturation.
For eight years, the Italian group Cremonini has been planning to build one, but negotiations failed in 2016, in 2019 and again in 2022. “The economy ministers who managed the file were dismissed Three times in a row, then, for lack of an interlocutor, Cremonini dropped, explains Maksut Baktibayev, who participated in the discussions. An Italian negotiator ended up saying to me: “Your country is not ready.” It’s condescending , but, on the merits, he is not wrong. “
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