Beef export restrictions: Agriculture Ministry explains the reasons

Tengrinews.kz – The Ministry of Agriculture has clarified how the new restrictions on beef exports from Kazakhstan will be applied.
When the restrictions take effect
From 31 December 2025, the rules for distributing export quotas on beef shipments from Kazakhstan to third countries and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member states came into force. The measure will remain in effect until 30 June 2026. The total export quota for beef has been set at 20,000 tonnes.
How the quotas are distributed
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, quotas are allocated for beef produced by meat-processing enterprises using cattle from their own feedlots.
The quota size for a single participant directly depends on the capacity of their feeding facilities:

from 5,000 head – up to 1,000 tonnes;from 10,000 head – up to 2,000 tonnes;from 15,000 head – up to 3,000 tonnes;from 20,000 head – up to 4,000 tonnes;from 50,000 head – up to 10,000 tonnes.

Why the restrictions are being introduced
The ministry noted that this approach is aimed at supporting full-cycle producers and increasing the transparency of foreign trade operations.
The main goals of the temporary restrictions are to ensure food security, promote deeper processing of products, and build transparent statistics and traceability of meat origin.
The trigger for these measures was the practice whereby certain companies and small slaughterhouses were effectively engaged in reselling livestock without fattening and without developing their own production base.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, such schemes created conditions for speculative middlemen and distorted the real balance of supply and demand, becoming one of the factors driving price increases on the domestic market.
The new procedure is intended to remove such resellers from the export market and leave only those who genuinely raise cattle, invest in production and provide jobs. At the same time, the authorities expect to restore order in accounting and origin tracking of meat.
Earlier, the head of the Ministry of Agriculture explained the reasons for limiting beef exports from Kazakhstan.