Export diversification of agrifood products in the Kyrgyz Republic - workshop

In March 2015, the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic adopted and implemented the Export Development
Plan (EDP) for 2015-2017. The primary goal of the EDP is to develop the competitive export potential for
sustainable economic growth. This is expected to be accomplished by creating necessary conditions for
achieving a more attractive foreign trade regime and improving the competitiveness of goods and the liability
of producers for their products. Some development partners such as FAO, the EU Commission, EBRD and
IFC are supporting the government's efforts and initiatives in this area. Despite the achieved progress, there
are still, however, some problems that constrain export development, including in the areas of the agrifood
competitiveness, export support measures and food quality and SPS systems.

Following the request from the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Industry and, Melioration, and the Ministry of
Economy of the Kyrgyz Republic FAO organised a workshop on export promotion, which took place on 18-
19th of October 2016. This workshop was part of the Regional Initiative on Improving Agrifood Trade and
Market Integration and included international experts. During the workshop, the representative of the Ministry
of Economy expressed the interest of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic to receive further support for
export development from FAO. Therefore, as part of the project “Export diversification of agrifood products
in the Kyrgyz Republic” (TCP/KYR/3605/C3), in 2017 FAO developed detailed guidelines for agrifood export
of priority products from the Kyrgyz Republic to EU and an analytical overview about specifics of access to
the Chinese agrifood market.

The aim of the workshop is to raise awareness of both the government and exporters of the Kyrgyz Republic
about ways to diversify agrifood exports and about entering the EU’s and China’s agricultural markets.