Review of Kazakhstan's dairy market in 2024: Production of the national drink drops by more than 30%, while price growth slows down as a bright spot
In 2024, the domestic dairy product output showed a slight increase. Among them, the output of milk and cream increased by 3.7% year-on-year to 621,000 tons; the output of butter and dairy substitutes increased by 4.6%; low-fat and high-fat milk residues increased by 30.2% and 9.2% respectively; the output of unprocessed cheese such as cheese, cheese powder, and blue cheese increased by 3.5%; the output of yogurt and fermented dairy products increased by 4%. However, the output of some dairy products showed a downward trend. The output of solid dairy products decreased by 6.2% year-on-year to 52,000 tons; the output of processed cheese decreased by 7.2%; the output of sour mare's milk and camel's milk, known as the national drink of Kazakhstan, decreased by 37.4% and 37.9% respectively. In terms of price, as of the end of December last year, the price of dairy products rose by 0.7% month-on-month. It is worth noting that the price of dairy products has continued to rise since July 2016. Throughout the year, dairy product prices rose by 6.1% year-on-year, lower than the 11.2% in 2023. Among them, milk prices rose by 7.4%, yogurt and other sour milk products rose by 6.9%, cheese and curd prices rose by 4.7%, and canned milk prices rose by 3.5%. In terms of consumption, from January to September 2024, Kazakhstan's per capita consumption of milk and dairy products was 173.3 kg, an increase of 1.6% over 2023. From the regional data, Akmola Oblast had the highest per capita dairy consumption, reaching 221.2 kg, followed by East Kazakhstan and Karaganda Oblast. Residents of Shymkent had the lowest dairy consumption. In terms of residents' consumption expenditure, in the third quarter of 2024, dairy product consumption accounted for 5.4% of the country's total residents' consumption expenditure, and accounted for 10.8% of food and non-alcoholic beverage consumption. In terms of regions, residents in Almaty and Astana spent the most on dairy products, while Turkestan Oblast spent the least.