AKTAU – A new sturgeon farm in Akshukur Village in the Mangistau region will produce up to 60 tonnes of sturgeon per year, its executives say.
There are currently more than 3,000 young fish in the farm’s pond. By the end of the year, the farm plans to fill another 38 ponds with another 7,000 fish. The farm uses a special fodder produced in Poland and the ponds in which the fish are grown have closed water systems, so the fish grow in fresh artesian water. This is the only fish farm in the country to use this water system.
Experienced fish farmers, including Russian specialists, are involved in the project. According to them, fish grown on farms is not inferior to wild-caught fish.
“Now, the sturgeon weigh slightly more than a kilogramme. Before we sell them, we must grow them up to 2.2-2.3 kilogrammes,” the deputy manager of the project, Tursungul Zhakypova, said. “The juvenile fish is brought from the Atyrau Ural sturgeon farm. In two years, the first Mangistau sturgeon will appear on store shelves. Beluga grows faster – in a year and a half – and Siberian sturgeon will be grown by the end of this year. Our customers are fish shops and restaurants,” Zhakypova said.
The project, part of the State Programme of Accelerated Industrial Innovative Development (SPAIID) and the Business Road Map 2020, has cost 582.2 million tenge (US$3.17 million), together with the infrastructure expenditures, and has created 25 jobs.
The company’s managers believe that in four years, the farm will be paid off and begin to turn a profit.
