òÕÓÓËÉÊ      English E-mail: astra@mail.krg.kz 472378, v. Koksu, Abaisky district Karaganda region Republic of Kazakhstan Tel./fax: 8-32153-32545/31137

JSK "ASTRA" was established during spring 1997 on the basis of the former state farm "Koksunski". The state farm was privatized, reorganized and splitted into two parts: dairy farm and crop farm. The production assets of the crop farm transferred into a newly founded company named "ASTRA". Its main shareholders are Cebeco International Projects b.v. (CIP) and Agricultural Support Group Holland b.v. (ASG Holland). The main strategic objective of "ASTRA" is to become a reliable, low cost and quality seed potato supplier for the Central Asian market. Core of the strategy is the Dutch technology for potato growing and storage.

CIP is a full subsidairy of the Cebeco Handelsraad Group, a large Dutch cooperative uniting 50000 farmers in the Netherlands and controlling several hundreds daughter companies. The key activities of Cebeco Handelsraad Group comprise feed, seed and food with an annual turnover of five billion dollars.

ASG Holland b.v. has been established eversince the existence of "ASTRA". Its main activites are to source investment capital for the investments in agricultural projects in Kazakstan.

The farm "ASTRA" is situated in the Abai district in the Karaganda region, Republic of Kazakstan. The farm is part of an unique irrigation system built during the Soviet time.It has 2000 hectares of arable land under irrigation, 8000 ton fully renovated storage capacity for potatoes, 1000 ton vegetable cold store, state of the art production equipment for 400 hectares of potato production and 160 hectares of vegetable production.Although the average yields in the Karaganda Region, are 7 tons per hectare (1998), "ASTRA" shows already for the third year an average yield of 25 tons per hectare based on the Dutch technology of seed growing.

"ASTRA" employs 140 people and has annual sales turnover of 3 million dollar. Beside seed potatoes, "ASTRA" produces vegetables, wheat and barley for the local market.The farm is under management control of the Dutch company Cebeco International Projects b.v.. CIP has extensive experience in potato growing in the Central Asian Republics. Cebeco controls the production and storage process and the marketing of the products.

The local market is still an important factor for the company. About seventy five percent of the production of seeds and the produce of consumption potatoes is sold on the Kazakh market. In 1997, "ASTRA" has started with the export of seed potatoes to Tadjikistan and Kyrgyzstan. The main sources are the humanitarian projects in these countries. Our aim is to increase our share in these projects.Our partner in logistics is Maas Logistics which has a good reputation in the Central Asian market and is able to ship our product under the most optimal conditions and against competitive prices.

When choosing "ASTRA" as supplier, your potato production becomes more cost-efficient and the allocation of procurement budgets is done in an effective way. Working with the foreign management "ASTRA" has the advantage of working with a reliable partner which understands the local problems and knows how to slove them.

In 1998 "ASTRA" has concluded a chips variety seed growers contract with FoodMaster (food processing firm in Kazakstan).

Source: 73^rd List of Varieties of field crops 1998
Centrum voor Plantenveredelings- en Reproduktionderzoek CPRO-DLO.
Wageningen, 1997