Market Analysis of Organic Agricultural Products in Kazakhstan
based on Consumer Behaviour Research Tools
Dilara Samenbetova
1a
and Oleg Patlasov
2b
1
Omsk Humanitarian Academy, Omsk, Russia
2
Pushchino State Natural Science Institute, Pushchino, Russia
Keywords: Organic products market, consumer behaviour, market capacity, sociological survey, food products.
Abstract: The article is devoted to the study of trends in the market capacity of organic agricultural products by
analysing the consumer behaviour of the population of the Republic of Kazakhstan based on sociological
research. In recent years, the demand for organic products has been steadily growing both in the domestic and
foreign markets. Therefore, it becomes relevant to identify specific factors that will influence consumer
behaviour in the future, using the local market as an example. The purpose of the study is to use the tools of
social research to determine the factors for promoting environmentally friendly products and to identify
patterns in consumer demand. The conducted sociological surveys made it possible to identify the
characteristics of consumers of organic products and form proposals for producers on the further development
of organic agriculture. Thus, in the course of the study, the authors concluded about the need to conduct an
information policy among producers and buyers, improve the model of state support for organic agriculture
in Kazakhstan.
1 INTRODUCTION
Kazakhstan gained new opportunities in the
development of the market for organic products in
2013, following the approval of the Concept for the
Transition of the Republic of Kazakhstan to Green
Economy for 2013-2020 (State Program for the
Development of the Agro-Industrial Complex of the
Republic of Kazakhstan, 2017). In the shortest
possible time, the Government developed standards
for agricultural produce. In accordance with the
Concept and based on international standards, in 2015
the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan adopted
the law "On the Production of Organic Foods". The
law governs production of organic output, which in
turn will enable Kazakhstan to join the international
market for organic products; thus, the state will be
able to regulate the import and export of domestic
products. Kazakhstan has huge lands that are still
traditionally cultivated without the use of synthetic
fertilizers and pesticides (Law of the Republic of
Kazakhstan, 2015). This aspect means the CIS
country has a huge priority.
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2748-2359
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2015-1474
The production and sale of organic farm produce
is an objective national competitive advantage
offered by the agro-industrial complex of
Kazakhstan. The law meets the rules and regulations
of the international law of the IFOAM, and, hence,
complies with international quality and control
standards for organic products (The Food and
Agriculture Organization, 2019). The adoption of this
law enables Kazakhstan to join the world organic
trade market and provides positive trends for the
development of farming in Kazakhstan. Thus, the
Government is interested in the development of this
segment in the agro-industrial complex and is ready
to support the initiatives of agricultural producers that
switch from traditional farming to organic farming.
Accordingly, a constructive analysis is needed into
whether consumers are willing to buy organic
products at a higher price.
The purpose of the study was to gauge the
capacity of the consumer market for organic products
in Kazakhstan. In order to identify the factors driving
consumer behavior, sociological studies were done
based on a survey of Internet users focused on the
Samenbetova, D. and Patlasov, O.
Market Analysis of Organic Agricultural Products in Kazakhstan based on Consumer Behaviour Research Tools.
DOI: 10.5220/0011571900003524
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Methods, Models, Technologies for Sustainable Development (MMTGE 2022) - Agroclimatic Projects and Carbon Neutrality, pages
359-364
ISBN: 978-989-758-608-8
Copyright
c
 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
359

consumption of organic food, as well as polling of
customers of specialized stores of organic products in
Nur-Sultan
Be advised that papers in a technically unsuitable
form will be returned for retyping. After returned the
manuscript must be appropriately modified.
2 MATERIALS AND METHODS
Sociological methodologies have been utilized in a
number of studies dealing with organic agriculture.
Studies in 2013 - 2018 show that the main driver for
consuming organics is health concerns. As research
by TNS and Yandex-Market for Russia shows, it is
mostly homemakers who buy organic food for their
households and relatives – and mothers for their
children – making up 40%. Regular advocates of a
healthy lifestyle among buyers make up about a third.
Only one tenth of such buyers are told by a doctor to
do so, with the so-called luxury segment making up
the same number. The remaining 5% of organic food
buyers do it as a tribute to fashion. Well, in 2007-2008
the luxury segment was the main purchasing
audience, accounting for more than 90% of buyers. It
can be concluded that the target segment took shape
in this variant, and, in the future, it will continue to
develop. Tired of marketing tricks, up to 80% of
staunch adherents of organic food today in the
Russian Federation buy it only from trusted producers
(which also hinders the development of the market).
In 2014, the Statistics Committee of the Ministry
of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan
delivered a one-off large-scale social study – "Quality
of Life" – which surveyed (interviewed) 12 thousand
households, aimed to identify the correlation between
the commitment to organic food and income of
households as divided into 5 conditional social
groups: low-income; not poor, but not the middle
class either; middle class; upper middle class; well-
off (wealthy). In the survey, 42% of households who
consider themselves to be in the upper middle class
replied that they steadily consume environmentally
friendly products, and 46.8% partially consume them,
in contrast to low-income families, of which only
18% consume environmentally friendly products
(Life Quality Bulletin, 2014).
The authors did an online survey of food
consumers in Kazakhstan to assess the capacity of the
market for organic products. The survey was
conducted using Google Drive - the respondents filled
in questionnaires in Google Drive. This ensured
complete anonymity of the study and the objectivity
of statistical results. This survey can be repeated,
because all data is stored on the Google Drive,
therefore, in the future, new data can also be
analyzed. A survey was conducted among buyers of
specialized stores focused exclusively on the sale of
organic products in order to draw up a more accurate
profile of a consumer of eco-friendly products and to
identify factors of consumer behavior.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
There is no official statistics on the production of
organic food in Kazakhstan, with no public register of
organic producers available. According to the
National Accreditation Center, in 2019 Kazakhstan
ranked ninth in the export of organic food products to
the EU, having increased supplies to 85,675 tons,
although in 2018 exports amounted to 50,250 tons.
This being said, Kazakhstan ranks sixth in Asia in
terms of the total area of organically certified land,
but in the future the country may rank third in Asia
after China (3,135,000 ha) and India (1,938,221 ha).
The following countries became the main exporters:
Great Britain, Italy, Germany, France, Belgium, the
Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Ukraine and other
countries (State Program for the Development of the
Agro-Industrial Complex of the Republic of
Kazakhstan, 2017).
According to the annual statistics of FiBL &
IFOAM - Organic International (2020) - FiBL survey
2021, Kazakhstan joined top 10 countries at year-end
2019 with a high increase in the use of organic lands
(Fig. 1).
Figure 1: Top 10 countries with the highest increase in
organic lands in 2019.
In addition, according to year-end statistics of
2018, Kazakhstan uses 192,134 hectares of land for
+93’808
+94’799
+102’156
+108’441
+118’666
+158’880
+205’746
+205’773
+295’273
+361’002
’0 100’000 200’000 300’000 400’000
Hungary
Brazil
Kazakh…
Spain
Mexico
Ukraine
Bolivia
France
USA
India
Hectares
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360

organic food production. This is roughly 0.1% of the
share of the total organic land. If we analyze this
indicator for 2017, we can see that the amount of
organic lands has decreased. In 2017, the size of
organic land was 256,741 hectares, which is 64,607
hectares less than in 2018. In 2019, arable organic
land increased by almost 102,156 hectares. In the
context of 10 years, of course, Kazakhstan has
achieved an increase of almost 42.5%. There is no
official statistics on producers nationwide, but
according to the source presented above, 63
producers make organic food in Kazakhstan, which
includes 22 businesses engaged in the storage and
processing of organic food products, 7 in imports, and
14 in exports.
According to the annual statistics of
FiBL&IFOAM - Organic International (2020) - FiBL
survey 2021, at year-end 2019, Kazakhstan joined
countries from the DAC (Development Assistance
Committee) list with the largest areas of organic
agricultural land in 2019 (Fig. 2).
Figure 2: Top 10 countries with the largest areas of
organic farming lands in 2019.
FAO defines it the following way: organic refers
to a product that has been produced in accordance
with certain standards throughout the production,
handling, processing and marketing stages. Once
confirmed by a certification authority that a product
complies with organic standards, the product receives
a label (The Food and Agriculture Organization,
2019).
As part of the study, a social survey "Analysis of
the Organic Market of Products in Kazakhstan" was
conducted among online users. The polling
comprised around 500 respondents over the age of 20
as part of the working population from government
and business structures. Using sociological study as a
basis, the authors made conclusions about the attitude
of Internet users to the organic food market.
The survey revealed a category of people who
consume organic products and know about them. In
our survey, less than 10% of respondents completely
trust the food labels. Further, the authors tried to find
out how often local consumers consume organic
products. In Kazakhstan, the largest share of
respondents (49%) buy these products quite often and
4.9% - almost every day.
It should be noted that organic food has a short
shelf life and must be transported in a special way,
which makes added value for these products higher.
We would like to note the relationship between
consumers of organic products and monthly income.
Around 26% of respondents said their monthly salary
was about 100 thousand tenge (rough rate of 1
Kazakhstan tenge (KZT) is 0.0023 Dollar (USD) as
of May 10, 2022). Only 12% have a monthly income
of more than 350 thousand tenge per person. Fifteen
percent of respondents have an income of 400
thousand tenge and 17% have an income of 450
thousand tenge.
The sociological survey has revealed a certain
group of consumers in Kazakhstan who know about
organic food (11.8%) and are ready to pay more than
5 thousand tenge per day for them per person (27%).
More than 60% of respondents follow proper
nutrition habits and consume organic products from
time to time. Nineteen percent of respondents said
that they do not have the financial ability to buy these
products.
Almost 65% of Internet users said that the main
factor in the consumption of organic products was its
health value. Seventeen percent of respondents noted
concern for the health of children as the main factor
in consumer behavior. Nine percent consume organic
products due to health problems (gastrointestinal
problems and the likelihood of allergies).
The main segment for consuming natural produce
– as the polling has revealed – is Nur-Sultan (55%
respondents) and Almaty (30%).
The observations have established that the main
consumers of organic products are, first, people with
a high level of income and families with children
under the age of seven.
Based on the analysis of the respondents' replies,
we can present the main factors influencing consumer
behavior (Table 1).
0,28
0,29
0,29
0,30
0,47
0,52
1,28
2,22
2,30
3,67
024
Tanzania
Tunisia
Kazakhstan
Mexico
Ukraine
Turkey
Brazil
China
India
Argentina
Million hectares
Market Analysis of Organic Agricultural Products in Kazakhstan based on Consumer Behaviour Research Tools
361

Table 1: Factors that put together the profile of a potential
retail buyer in an organic market.
Factor Profile Degree
of
influence
Purchasing
power
People with an income
above average find
themselves increasingly
reflecting about the quality
attributes of products rather
than their quantitative
attributes.
Crucial
Family
status,
parental
status
Families with children
under the age of 7
High
Health
condition
People with health
problems, especially with
GIT disorders, consume
organic foods in accordance
with their diet
High
Place of
residence
Cities with population of
over 1 million residents, in
p
art
–
re
g
ional centers
High
Awareness Active users of Internet and
social networks know
or
g
anic
p
roducts better.
Medium
Education People with higher
education are more
informed and concerned
about the green economy,
so they are more deliberate
in their choice of products
Medium
Food
preferences
When picking food
products, they scan through
the packaging, specifically
the producer, composition,
GOST and compliance with
certification standards
Medium
Age Young people find it
fashionable, older people do
it out of health concerns
Medium
Gender There is a slight dependence
relating to the fact that
women give consideration
to or
g
anic
p
roducts
Low
The study revealed the following point. The
percentage of the population that understand the idea
respondents. As there is no regulatory framework and
no clear understanding of how producers are
classified (pseudo-labels, "spontaneous producers",
"certified products"), consumers do not yet
understand what products are considered organic.
Completely distrustful of "organic products" labels
are 18.6% of respondents in Kazakhstan, with 31%
characterizing organic products as a sales pitch to
increase value.
In order to determine the market capacity in the
course of the study, we tried to find out where
consumers of the country under analysis buy natural
bioproducts available in retail outlets in a particular
region.
The country and reputation of the producer have a
great influence on the consumer choice, and this is
especially important for food products. The majority
of respondents in Kazakhstan carefully read who is a
food producer and give preference to those who are
well known to this market. Eighty four percent of
consumers pay attention to the label, reading the
composition and looking at who the producer is. Only
11% of respondents in Kazakhstan, when they buy
food, do not pay attention to who the producer is and
do not read the labels, with 4.9% looking only at the
price of the product. Thus, not all respondents agreed
with the phrase “expensive means good quality”.
Around 50% said that they match information about
the product, which is its benefits, to price.
The following figures characterize this fact.
Thirty percent of respondents purchase organic
products at markets and fairs (i.e. in places where
products do not have special certificates, etc.). Thirty
nine percent of respondents trust specialized shelves
in regular supermarkets (therefore, this group buys
pseudo-natural products with BIO labels more often).
I would also like to note that there is no mandatory
certification system for national products in the
Republic of Kazakhstan, which results in consumers
associating eco-friendly products with products free
of chemicals and GMOs. Sixteen percent of
interviewees trust organic products grown by friends
or special farms. Only 11% trust specialized stores
with certified products.
The study helped identify the following point. Out
of general variety of food products available in the
market, including products from foreign countries,
majority of respondents give preference to
domestically produced products, considering them to
be of the highest quality and at affordable price.
Sixty-five percent of the respondents prefer "Made in
KZ" products, and 8% said that they would buy what
is cheaper, with 22% failing to notice the difference
between imported and domestic products.
When the respondents were asked to note the main
factors affecting what product they would choose,
almost 64% said that they look at benefits and safety
of consumption when choosing food. Only 8% do not
think about it. Thus, majority of consumers pay
attention to information about the health benefits of a
particular product, and this information should be
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available to consumers at the time of purchase, which
means it is necessary to deliver information and
marketing campaigns in such a way that a potential
buyer knows everything about the benefits of an
organic product.
4 CONCLUSIONS
Thus, the organic products industry in Kazakhstan
has been evolving almost since 2012, but has not yet
achieved big results. The industry is quite new and
specific, so the mechanism of interacting with both
potential producers and consumers has not yet been
clearly developed.
Product awareness has not yet been shaped.
Residents of Kazakhstan learn about most of the
benefits of organic products from the Internet, with
the consumer failing to understand the difference
between "organic", "organic products", "BIO",
"GMO-free", "eco-products", "natural product",
unaware of strict requirements for the production and
labeling of organic products. For some, all organic
products are just a sales pitch.
Hence, the issue of certification and labeling
becomes relevant. After all, only the “organic” label
and a conformity mark give 100% confidence to the
consumer about the natural origin of raw materials,
and the high quality of the product without the use of
any chemicals, preservatives, GMOs, etc. (Blagoyev,
2020). Moreover, a large proportion of consumers in
Kazakhstan are unaware of the labels of organic
products incorporating a special conformity mark. In
most cases, consumers will read the information on
the packaging that this food product complies with
the established GOST.
Kazakhstan does not have a unified certification
system in accordance with an international certificate,
while it is expensive to undergo certification with an
international certification authority. This is why it
will be unrealistic for a local producer to enter the
international marker without state support.
Therefore, without the support of the state, it is
simply unrealistic for a commodity producer to enter
the international market. Crop rotation, purchasing
certified seeds, getting certified, storing and
transporting organic products properly according to
standards are all costly aspects of organic farming.
Therefore, at the initial stage, small farmers who
begin to engage in organic farming cannot do without
the help of the state. Measures of state support for
agricultural entrepreneurship in the field of organic
agriculture have not yet been formed. In fact, the state
does not provide financial, informational or
investment support for organic agriculture. There is
no system for collecting information on the number
of producers, certified land, market size and other
components, on the basis of which further forecasts
for its development are built. Roles are not distributed
between public authorities, ministries and market
entities in the form of manufacturers, consumers,
suppliers, traders. Thus, it is necessary to create a
functioning institutional structure that implements the
policy of organic agriculture development.
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neutrality", Kadyrov Chechen State University Chechen Republic, Grozny, st. Sher
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