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Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan

Upstream Investment in Central Asia

IFC
Client
IFC
Location
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan
Duration of assignment
2020
Service

THE CLIENT

The IFC, part of the World Bank Group, issued a new program of Upstream Investment targeted at making significant change in a territory’s value chains. We worked with the Europe and Central Asia Agribusiness teams, the country officers and the new Upstream team.

THE CHALLENGE

The challenge was to identify large-scale investment opportunities (> US $ 20 M) in the Livestock and Dairy sectors in Kazakhstan and the Horticulture in Uzbekistan that would have a major development impact.

THE SERVICE

Competitiveness together with a team of leading industry and local experts, carried out in depth analysis, interviews and conducted workshops with the IFC management to:

  • Analyse the current status and value chain gaps and the comparative advantages of bothcountries to attract investors.
  • Define strategic opportunities for investment and characterize them in terms of market potential, size and investor profiles.
  • Issue recommendations on improvement areas that would make investments more attractive and have a better upstream impact.

IFC in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan

RESULTS

In Kazakhstan

  • Reformulation of investment strategy towards differentiated meat, following modern and sustainable regenerative agriculture techniques.
  • The lamb export opportunity was identified, with emphasis on halal markets.

In Uzbekistan

  • Identification of opportunities associated to new fruits with high growth and margins.
  • Proposal of international partnering strategies for local players.
  • Identification and targeting of potential investors.