The government released information on economic development results for the first half of 2026. According to the data, economic growth amounted to 4.1%, accelerating by 0.4% compared to January-May figures. Positive momentum in agriculture remains, with investment continuing to drive growth, according to the APK News agency.

"Over the first six months of 2026, gross agricultural output increased by 4.4%, reaching 2.2 trillion tenge. The main driver of this growth was a strong influx of investment: over the first five months of 2026, investment in agriculture increased by 36.4%, while investment in food production increased by 2.7 times, reaching 207.3 billion tenge," the government reported.

The "Auyl Amanaty" (Rural Entrepreneurship) program is one of the key drivers of support for rural entrepreneurship. This year, 2,738 projects have already been financed under this program, totaling 29.4 billion tenge. A total of 100 billion tenge is planned for the project's implementation in 2026. These funds will be used to provide budget microloans and leasing for 5,400 projects, significantly expanding opportunities for rural residents and small town residents to start and grow businesses.

Diversification of crop production and growth of livestock production

The total sown area has expanded this year to 23.8 million hectares, 180,000 hectares more than last year. Farmers have focused on highly profitable oilseed crops, covering 4.3 million hectares, and forage crops, covering 3.3 million hectares, while grains and legumes occupy approximately 15.8 million hectares.

At the same time, livestock production has seen a steady increase in livestock numbers. The cattle population increased by 5.8% to 9.3 million, horses by 7.4% to 5 million, and camels by 3.6% to 312,000. As a result, carcass weight production also increased: meat production increased by 5.5% to 559,000 tons, cow's milk by 2.4% to 1.9 million tons, and egg production increased by 7.9% to 2.4 billion.

Agricultural Investment Map

To systematize this work, the Ministry of Agriculture has developed a Roadmap for 2026–2028, under which 13 major international investment agreements have already been signed. Key projects include:

Shengtai Biotech LLP (Fufeng Group, China): $1.5 billion corn deep processing plant;

Asia Altyn Dan LLP (Dalian Hesheng Holdings Group, China): Construction of a $650 million deep grain processing plant in the Akmola region;

Alsera KZ LLP (Alarko Holding, Turkey): Construction of a mega-greenhouse complex worth $650 million;

QazaqArab Sugar LLP (Al Khaleej, UAE): Sugar factory in the Almaty region worth $580 million;

Kazak Protein LLP (Tiryaki Holding, Turkey): A $320 million deep grain processing complex in Astana;

Carlsberg Central Asia LLP (Denmark): Soft drink production plant worth 216.3 billion tenge;

World-class brand projects: Construction of new production facilities for Mars Petcare (88.8 billion tenge) and Coca-Cola Almaty Bottlers (41.8 billion tenge) in the Almaty region.

Preferential leasing of agricultural machinery

A significant technological shift has occurred in the modernization of agricultural machinery. Thanks to increased funding for the preferential leasing program at 5% per annum to 350 billion tenge in 2026, the fleet renewal rate has increased to 6.5%. In the two years since the program's launch, agricultural machinery sales to farmers have increased by 35%. It is noteworthy that 25,000 units of machinery were purchased the previous year, 10,400 of which were purchased through leasing.

Meanwhile, the share of machinery assembled in Kazakhstan in the procurement structure has soared to 95%. Currently, the country has 10 major factories, supplying 90% of the domestic tractor and combine market, including localized assembly of global leaders such as John Deere in Kostanay and CLAAS in Petropavlovsk.

Ensuring food security and price stabilization

All these investment and technological measures have a direct impact on store shelves. In the first half of 2026, the physical volume index for food production in the country amounted to 114.7%, and for beverage production, 104.4%. Impressive growth was noted across a number of key categories: meat, sausages, vegetable and butter, cheese and cottage cheese, fermented milk products, cereals, pasta, rice, confectionery, and processed vegetables.

"Today, Kazakhstan's domestic market is already 80-100% self-sufficient in basic food products. "Increasing domestic production directly supports domestic prices and protects the market from import dependence," the Government reported.

They also noted that systematic efforts to fully substituting imports are ongoing for the six remaining vulnerable categories, including poultry, fish, sausages, cheese, sugar, and apples. The launch of new domestic production facilities will gradually reduce dependence on external supplies for these items and stabilize the cost of the basic food basket. To directly curb prices and eliminate speculative markups, the government will conduct direct working meetings with major retailers and organize regular regional farmers' fairs, where products are sold directly from producers at 15-20% below market price.