Can you provide us with some background on the company’s operations since its establishment?

Boltabek Nazhmetdinuly Our business is currently concentrated in three main areas: transport logistics, production of building materials, and crop production. In 13 years Dala-Trans has become the largest transport and logistics company in the southern region of Kazakhstan. Dala-Trans transports goods through the territory of Kazakhstan, as well as through Europe, Western Russia, Siberia, Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Our second business line is the production of building materials. Dala-Construction was founded in 2002 and its main activity is turnkey construction. The company started by developing an industrial site in the South Kazakhstan region, and today there are three crushing and sorting complexes operating at a quarry with a production capacity of up to 100,000cbm. Our third business line, Dala-Fruit, was established in 2012 to carry out activities in the field of crop production. In view of the lack of storage facilities in the south of Kazakhstan, the company built and commissioned a storage facility with a CWG equipped with modern Western European equipment, including freezing and refrigeration equipment, adjustable gas environment equipment, sorting and packaging equipment, and auxiliary loading and unloading equipment.

Nuraly Abishov Bortye Milka was founded in 2003 in Shymkent in the South Kazakhstan region. The primary type of business is animal husbandry. The company has its own farms for breeding small cattle and large-sized cattle. At the moment the amount of small cattle is 350,000 heads. In 2005, Bortye Milka launched a dairy farm project to start producing milk. Overall, the farm is designed for 1,000 head of mulch cattle. Currently we have 400 Holstein-Friesian cows being milked. The average daily productivity per each head is 30 liters. The dairy farm was constructed using the latest advanced technologies of Swedish company DeLaval. This company is the leading manufacturer of equipment for automation of milking processes, feed distribution, and other technological processes of dairy farms in the world. DeLaval is a part of Tetra Laval Group, which also includes Tetra Pak and Sidel. The dairy farm also has extensive equipment such as six robotic milkers, automated equipment to remove manure, including a modern manure separator, cows’ cooling system on feed table, a ventilation system with weather station, daylight system, identification cameras to identify cows’ body mass, milk piping with milking machines, equipment for calves, and so on.

How would you assess the overall sector in which you operate in Kazakhstan?

BN Over the past eight years, Kazakhstan’s total cargo turnover has grown 1.5 times. At the same time, freight turnover of road transport increased 2.5 times, and according to preliminary estimates of experts in 2016-2017, growth will only continue. The overwhelming majority of enterprises in Kazakhstan are small enterprises, which indicates that the market for logistics services is still developing. Economists very often point to a shortage of storage facilities in Kazakhstan, especially of class “A.” An efficient warehouse system that minimizes the costs of cargo transportation is needed in Kazakhstan and attractive for investment. The active development of the logistics sector meets the goal of developing Kazakhstan as a transport and logistics hub of Eurasia and realizing its transit potential.

NA The implementation of the milk processing project became possible due to the following factors: government support for the development of milk production companies; increased demand from the population, which prefers natural products with European quality; lower competition between producers of natural milk products; and the ability of the company to invest resources in this project.

What are your goals and priorities for 2017?

BN For 2017 we have big plans: we want to bring our transport fleet of Dala-Trans to 100 units, launch the third facility for the production of reinforced concrete products of Dala-Construction with a production volume of up to 150sqm of products per year, launch the full capacity Dala-Fruit storage facility with a total storage capacity of 8,200 tons, and expand fruit storage to a volume of 15,000 tons. In the medium term, we plan the creation of a service center for the maintenance and repair of large-capacity transport, expansion of activities, and increase in the range of production of building materials, the establishment of the production of agricultural products.

NA In 2017, on the basis of the dairy farm project initiators, we will set up a milk processing plant with a production rate of 50 tons per day. Contracts have been signed to provide equipment for the plant, with several Italian companies specializing in the manufacturing of milk production equipment. The establishment of the plant is planned for October 2017. At this moment construction on workshops at the future plant is being completed; once it is completed, equipment installation will begin.