Potato prices in Kazakhstan rose by 18.2% year on year by August 26, according to operational data from the Bureau of National Statistics. In July, the annual increase was 5.2%. The final August figure is expected to be close to 20% once the monthly bulletin is published.

Such a sharp increase during the harvest period is unusual. In August–September 2024, annual potato price growth ranged from 10% to 14%, while in the same months of 2025 it was only 5%–9%.

The price trend reflects changes in Kazakhstan’s potato market over the past two years. In 2024, farmers exported a record 565,200 tonnes of potatoes, leaving insufficient supply for the domestic market. Prices subsequently increased by as much as 79% during the winter and spring of the following year.

In 2025, the government introduced a potato export ban for the first half of the year, except for shipments to EAEU countries. This helped stabilize the market, while annual potato exports fell by 31.3% in volume.

Imports have not been the main factor behind the current price increase. Kazakhstan imported just 54,700 tonnes of potatoes in January–June 2026, 69% less than in the same period of 2025. For a market of Kazakhstan’s size, this is a relatively small volume. Domestic producers and retail chains therefore had a greater influence on prices.

Producer prices remained above the previous year’s level from July 2025 to July 2026, although the rate of increase gradually slowed. Potato prices at farm level rose by 33.4% year on year in July 2025, while the increase had slowed to 14.5% by December. In June 2026, producer prices were 11.2% higher year on year and 7.8% higher in July, before the harvest was completed. Early potato supplies may also have influenced pricing.

Higher production costs are another factor behind the increase. According to Bureau of National Statistics data, potato production costs rose from 23.9 billion tenge in 2024 to 38.8 billion tenge in 2025, an increase of 62.3%.

At the same time, Kazakhstan harvested more than 2.8 million tonnes of potatoes in 2025, 7.9% more than in 2024. The cultivated area has also increased over the past three years, rising by 7.7% last year. The increase in costs therefore appears to be linked less to production volumes and more to the economics of potato production, including higher expenses for seeds, fuel, and fertilizers.

Source: ranking.kz