NUR-SULTAN – The pandemic has accelerated the growth in the e-commerce market globally.
In Kazakhstan, the share of e-commerce in retail trade exceeded 1.1 trillion tenge (US$2.5 billion) and reached 9.7 percent of the total retail turnover or 11.6 trillion tenge (US$27 billion) in 2020, according to the PrimeMinister.kz.
The number of online shoppers increased 20 percent and totaled 3.8 million buyers compared to 3.2 million buyers in 2019. Some 650 online stores operate on the market.
Kazakhstan has also been implementing measures to bring domestic producers to international online shopping platforms including Alibaba.com. As a result, 100 companies have already received a Gold Supplier account on this platform by the end of 2020.
Goods worth $18.1 million were sold. Overall, more than 4,000 goods are available on Alibaba.com. “Based on the positive experience, it is planned to bring 50 companies to the platform this year. This will increase the total volume of export supplies from $50 to $100 million by mid-2022,” said Director General of QazTrade Development Center Azamat Askaruly.
In May, Kazakhstan received access to one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms Amazon.
“The main problem was the need to become a part of the allowed countries. To open a legal entity and a bank account in these countries in order to conduct all transactions on the website. Now Kazakh entrepreneurs can receive payments directly through Kazakh banks. This is a major step for the e-commerce expansion and export of Kazakh goods,” added Askaruly.
Kazakh goods are also available on Russia’s Ozon.ru online shopping platform.
The Ministry of Trade and Integration is now working on receiving access to the Mundus Agri platform, which is an information and shopping platform in the global agri-food and agricultural market.
According to Minister of Trade and Integration Bakhyt Sultanov, more than 4,600 goods are exported to Russia, China, the United Arab Emirates, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Singapore, South Africa and other countries.
Kazakhstan exports hydraulic truck cranes, pipes used in the oil industry and fish fillets to Canada. The components of helicopters and measuring instruments for the aviation industry are exported to France. Dredgers for offshore use go for exports to the Netherlands, pile driving and extraction equipment to Greece, power pumps, bearings and wrench sockets to Algeria, the components for drilling equipment and hydraulic installations to Ireland.
Unalloyed aluminum, rolled metal products, copper, ferrosilicon, lead, ferrochrome, phosphorus, sulfur are also exported.
Liquefied butane and propane are in great demand in dozens of countries. Last year, Kazakhstan exported nearly $600 million worth of liquefied gas.
The list of exported goods includes amino acids, nucleic acids and salts, gluconic acid, cigarettes, cars, household chemicals, food products, and confectionery.
